


Missing

by SooperWeeb



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Angst, Bisexual, Camp Half-Blood (Percy Jackson), Demigods, F/F, F/M, Found Family, Ocean, Percy Jackson’s sister, Romance, daughter of poseidon, peter johnson - Freeform, powers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-17
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-12 07:00:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 40,988
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29505894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SooperWeeb/pseuds/SooperWeeb
Summary: Lola has lived her life in Los Angeles, with a family she didn't want and who didn't want her. The only silver lining she could ever find was her best friend Aiden, who disappeared and was presumed dead by the entire city. With nothing holding her to the streets anymore, Lola seizes the first opportunity she sees to leave and never look back. But who knew a stolen plane ticket would lead her into the arms of gods, demi-gods, monsters, the brother she thought was dead, and a brother she knew for a week before disappearing. Nothing good can ever last for her, can it?
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson, Calypso/Leo Valdez, Hazel Levesque/Frank Zhang, Jason Grace/Piper McLean, Nico di Angelo & Will Solace
Comments: 4
Kudos: 29





	1. Stealing a Plane Ticket From a Stranger (Friend?)

There were very few things that Lola understood about the world. It would take less time to explain what she did understand. One: the ocean was kinder than the land, and two: Los Angeles was anything but the city of angels.

Those two things were reinforced every time she woke up on a bench in Miramar Park. Which was more often than she wanted to admit. But today, those two things rang louder in her ears than usual. Louder than the crashing waves of the ocean a little away from her. Her shoulder being pushed rather roughly brought her out of a rather pleasant dream of hot cocoa and mac'n'cheese.

"Hey, kid," a voice made her crack open an eye and face whoever was disturbing her. A black uniform stared down at her, the letters 'LAPD' stitched across the front left breast. She sighs, closing her eyes as if she had a chance of falling back asleep, "this is the third day in a row."

Lola rolls her head back against the bench, opening both eyes to look at the cop this time. He was new, but she recognized him. Because, like he said, this is the third time he's woken her up in this park.

"You're point?" she groggily asks, slowly lowering her feet to the sidewalk below them. She rolls up into a sitting position, rubbing at her green eyes until she felt like the fog had been pushed out.

The new guy sighs, "I can't keep looking away from this," he says, "I could lose my job if I don't call CPS."

The snort that leaves her is mocking. She looks towards the end of the bench where her head just was, unphased by his comment. Her old canvas bag is pulled onto her lap so she can rifle through it.

"Hey," she says, "go for it. Do your job, or whatever. What time is it?"

After pushing around the few things she carried with her, consisting of an old, and empty, wallet, a hoodie, sweatpants, and a loose picture, she finds her pack of cigarettes sunk to the bottom. She brings it out and looks up at the cop expectantly, waiting for an answer.

He shakes his head as he watches her pull a camel from her half-empty pack, "7:30," he says in what she recognizes as defeat, "just don't let me catch you here tomorrow," he waves her off and turns to continue down the path that ran along the lake.

Lola hums to show she heard him, lighting her cigarette carefully before sliding the pack back into her bag. She takes a slow drag while leaning forward to let herself wake up.

It was Wednesday, school started in an hour. But she probably wouldn't bother going. There were more pressing matters at hand, like where she was going to find clothes for her next shower. Or where she could get food for under five dollars, where she was going to sleep tonight now that her favorite park was compromised. But for now, she could sit and enjoy the ocean.

The beach was the whole reason she chose this park most of the time. The crashing of the waves over the sand pushed her to sleep a lot easier than the sounds of traffic she got everywhere else. And the smell of saltwater was a nice way to put her in a good mood in the mornings.

Even on ones like this. When a cigarette would be her breakfast, and a cop was her wake-up call. Something about the open blue water gave her more comfort than anyone in the City of Angels ever had.

It wasn't always like this. She used to sleep under blankets and eat waffles on Sunday mornings. Like every other kid in her class. But for three years she had been bench-surfing the city of Los Angeles and living off of pool bets in small bars. Avoiding her old house unless she had to get clothes, in which case she had mastered the art of climbing two stories into her broken window.

A breeze shook her bones, reminding her that it was December in an unkind way. She blows out a puff of smoke, remembering that it was December now. At least the Christmas lights slowly rising around the city told her that. She wasn't very good at keeping track of the date without a phone.

She dropped the last of her cigarette on the concrete below her, smothering it with her converse. Her next mission was to find the day's hunting ground. She could probably find a bar open this early.

She stands up, pulling her bag onto her back.

Her black hair was no doubt a mess right now. She ran her hands through it to try and straighten it up, but that on succeeded in pulling it and making her flinch. From the outsider's perspective, she looked homeless. Her skinny jeans were covered in dirt and ripped up, and not in an artistic way. Her Metallica shirt was a few sizes too big because she had shoved it in her bag while in a thrift store a few days ago. The jean jacket was the right size, but also filthy and dirty.

The sad part was, their assumptions would be correct. She was homeless. Not legally, but she would sooner jump off the Golden Gate Bridge than go back to her mother's house. And she was still enrolled in High School, she just showed up a few days a week to keep the court orders away from her mom.

Her favorite bar was currently blocked off by construction from one direction, and she didn't really want to go the only other way to get inside. But it also wasn't like she had a choice. If she wanted money to eat lunch, then she had to get inside and look like a poor girl trying to get by on the road.

So she kept her head low as she turned the back alley to go around the building.

See, on one side of Jenny's Bar was a neon sigh that only ever glowed with the word OPEN. But the other side was a window that was covered in papers to the point that you almost couldn't see inside. And Lola hated walking past that window because of what hung on those windows.

Some were newspaper clippings, others were printed pictures. But all had the same big bold word staring at anyone who passed by. MISSING.

Animals, people, hell even a few pictures of stolen cars. Some were new with glossy finishes to protect them from the rain. But others, like the one she didn't want to look at, was faded and hardly able to be read. When she rounded the counter, she tried to keep her head down. Maybe she could make it inside without seeing his face and wanting to puke.

But it was like the world had an agenda to work against her. Like it had since the day she could drawl. The door to the bar swung open right before she could reach for the handle, forcing her to take a few steps back and catch herself from falling on her ass.

A guy was walking outside, hammered and not even noticing that he was about to plow down a 5'2" girl. She grimaces, moving out of his way as she recognizes him.

Jack Harding. Resident neighborhood drunk who loved racking up a tab at every bar he could get himself into. So it wasn't unusual for him to reek of liquor as he passed by her.

She shakes her head, "careful of traffic, Jack," she says just loud enough that he could hear her.

He stumbles right into the light pole in front of the open door, ignoring her completely. She catches it before it slams, rolling her eyes when he doesn't so much as apologize before sliding down the pole to the ground. In her act of irritation, her eyes found the window beside the door.

The poster had been up for three years now. Lola had put it up herself, hoping the night crowd would recognize those dark eyes and devilish smile. He was hard to forget, Aiden. He tended to linger in the back of your mind when you met him.

MISSING

Name: Aiden Scottson

Hair: black

Eyes: brown

Last seen wearing an AC/DC t-shirt and jeans with a red jacket. If seen please call (XXX) XXX-XXXX or the LAPD.

The words had faded to hell. But she had read them so many times that she could recite them without even looking. She had typed them and then printed them about 100 times. But this poster was the only one that remained.

She forces her eyes away before she can stare at his picture. Before the feeling of dread and betrayal takes over. She rushes past the door and lets it slam behind her.

The warmth of the bar was a nice change from the nippy winter air. It always was. It appeared mostly empty, just Ben behind the bar with an unsurprised expression that she was there.

"I'm not supposed to let minors in, you know," he says as he wipes out a glass under the bar. Lola raises an eyebrow at him while continuing her walk to the barstool in front of him. He smirks, knowing he never enforced his rule on her.

She had been coming here since she was 12. But back then she used the backdoor so she wouldn't be questioned. And she hadn't been alone either. But a lot of things had changed since then, and this is the one thing she wanted to stay the same. Her favorite hangout, which had her favorite bartender, would only change if she died.

"Got anything new?" She asks teasingly as she rests her elbows on the old wooden countertop, a small and tired smirk playing at her lips.

Ben, who was a tall guy in his late twenties with the graying hair of a Vietnam vet, scoffed at her joke, "nothing new since the '80s, you know that," he says as he slides the glass in his hand under the counter.

Lola giggles, "thought I'd ask anyway. What about a Budlight?"

He sighs, leaning an elbow on the counter beside her and giving her a disapproving look, "It's nine in the morning," he says, "and don't you have to be at school?"

She swirls the old bar stool around. It wasn't supposed to swivel, but the fact that it did made it her favorite seat in the room. She gazed out at the empty place, wondering how long it would take for some sorry sap to walk in and fall for some trick of hers.

"It's five o'clock somewhere," she reasons, "which means school is out and kids are making bad decisions already."

He was already cracking open a can behind her before she finished, so when she twirled back around the glass was already bubbly and full to the brim. She grins, pulling it towards her to take a sip off the top. Cold and disgusting, just how she liked it.

"You're gonna cost me my job one day, ya know that?" He says. She doesn't reply, too busy sipping on her morning drink.

The creaking of the ancient wooden door behind her is what pulls her attention away from her comfort drink. She throws a nonchalant glance over her shoulder, spotting who created the noise.

He wore a dark gray suit that was well made to him and perfectly pressed, a dark briefcase clutched in one hand and the other tucked inside his blazer pocket. He had a dazzling smile on the second he walked past the doors. His teeth reflected the dim lights hanging above the pool tables and bar seats, making the room seem brighter than it was.

He ran a fair hand through his shaggy dirty-blonde hair, "Hey, Ben! Surprised to see me?" he laughs as he approaches the bar with a pep in his step like he was on some mission.

Ben grinned at him, "I take it that meeting didn't go as planned?" he chuckles.

Lola sighs, moving her eyes back down to her beer glass. If Ben knew him, then she couldn't pull one over his eyes. She found it was easier to get the passers-by and tourists, people who wouldn't come back and rat her out for hustling them.

"Something like that," the man laughs and slides himself into the seat right beside Lola, who glares at him immediately.

The entire bar was empty. There were empty seats everywhere. And he had to sit directly beside her? She hated men.

"Old Mister Z had to call the meeting off due to some family business," he says as he taps the counter, "so I'll just take the usual before headed home!"

Ben nods, reaching below the bar to grab a glass identical to Lola's, who was still glaring at this mystery guy, "you seem awfully happy about it," he observes as he pours the glass half-full of whiskey, "I thought you would be excited about a trip to Long Island."

The man laughs, "well it's not my money he's wasting," he says and takes a sip of the glass that Ben had set down, "now I get an extra week off to spend on myself. Too bad about the ticket, though. I'm sure someone could've used it."

He pulls a flimsy piece of paper from his blazer pocket. It was white, with small words that Lola couldn't make out without a second to look at them. But she understood what it was without having to. A plane ticket. And from what they were talking about, it was to Long Island.

Her head perks up, but she tries to hide it.

"Could always give it to Lola here," laughs Ben, "we both know she could use a break, right?"

The men laugh at her expense. Did she know him? She turns to look at his face more closely.

He did look familiar. Very vaguely. Like she had passed him in a dream once. But she couldn't put a name to his face. But he gave her a smile like he knew her and everything about her, and she wasn't sure she liked it. It was like trying to see past a fog in her mind. She could almost catch a glimpse of him.

"Ha," she says uneasily, "yeah."

The mystery man shoves the ticket back in his pocket and takes another sip of whiskey, "well Lola," he says and looks down at her with that all-knowing expression she didn't like, "you'll make it to New York one day. I'm sure of it."

She tilts her head, turning her eyes back to her beer that was now half gone, "uh, thanks...dude," she still didn't have a name coming to mind.

She had pick-pocketed before, so she didn't doubt that she could do it. And it wasn't that she would feel bad if she did it. It's not like he was going to use it, or like he wanted to.

Well, it was easy to convince herself to do it, now all she had to do was figure out how to actually do it. And for that, she planned on going for the classic.

"Well," she says as she pushes the wobbly bar stool back a few inches, "I think you're right, Ben. I should get the last day of school out of the way for the week. Don't want another truancy officer on my ass again."

Ben smiled at her, "glad you're listening to me for once."

She smiles, purposely turning a little too quickly as she stands up. Her elbow smacks the beer glass right off the countertop and splatters all over the man in the gray suit that had her ticket out of this town. She fakes a gasp as he jumps up.

"Ah, shit," she says when he pushes his own bar stool out of the way of the mess, "sorry bout that...man. Ben, can we get some napkins?"

"Always a klutz, Lola," the bartender chuckles while pulling the towel from his shoulder and tossing it over to them.

"Don't worry about it, kid," says the man, "I have others," but she still helps to dab at the stain that now covered his blazer while he snatched a pile of napkins from the dispenser beside his seat.

While he was distracted by the cold wetness now covering him, she managed to slip a hand into his blazer pocket. It seemed like she was just helping him dry it up, but she snatched the ticket inside the towel and managed to push it into her own jacket pocket.

She glances at the clock as if she was late, and she was for school, "sorry again," she sighs and hands the towel to him, "see ya around, man. Bye, Ben."

She waves to them both as she heads for the door, pushing it open in a hurry. It slams behind her.

Was she really about to do this? Jump on a plane to New York when she had maybe $5 to her name and nothing worth taking with her in her bag. She swallows, stopping in her tracks in front of the covered window.

Aiden left. So why couldn't she? He had more to stay for than she did. Unless he didn't leave. And she didn't know which thought was worse. The fact that he's alive somewhere out there and he just left her behind, or the fact that he's dead and they never found his body. But either way, he would have been the only thing holding her here. And he wasn't even here.

The faded poster stared down at her, and she gripped the ticket in her pocket tightly. Like it would fly away and take her freedom with it. MISSING.

If he did run away, she didn't entirely blame him.

Maybe she could go missing too. The only difference would be that no one would notice. There would be no posters up of her on bar windows or light poles. She would just...disappear. No trance. No crying family. No sad friends.

She pulls her old backpack around to dangle in front of her, allowing her to fish around the inside.

At the bottom of the green pouch, she could feel a small piece of film loosely sitting there. She wrapped her hands around it and pulled it into the dim sunlight. She hadn't pulled it out of this bag since the night it was taken on Aiden's old polaroid camera that he stole from an antique store.

They were standing in front of the Ferris wheel of a carnival that had come through town. She was wearing the exact jacket she wore now, holding a pizza cone and grinning like a child. He had an arm slung over her shoulder, chin resting on her head. His other hand wasn't in the frame because it was holding up the camera. But his smile still matched hers.

She lifts the peeling tape that held his missing poster up. Just the one piece that had lasted three years. She slides out that paper, feeling it almost disintegrate in her grip, and slips the picture underneath in its place. And she drops the poster that she had kept up there for so long. She wouldn't be looking at it anymore, and no one else ever did.

MISSING.

She wonders if she'll ever be missed by anyone in any city.


	2. First a Ticket, Now a Bike

She had never been on a plane before this. And she wasn't sure she liked it.

The turbulence and jostling of her body against the uncomfortable seat didn't sit well with her morning beer. And she also wasn't a fan of being 30,000 feet in the air over land. Even when she wobbled off the terminal, she felt like she was floating.

No one questioned why a dirty teenage girl had wandered onto a plane full of businessmen and personal assistants. She wondered if it was normal for New York since not even the flight attendants thought it was strange. She was given a few bags of peanuts (sadly denied a tiny bottle of whiskey) and a bottle of water.

It was early morning when she arrived, the air cool when she walked out of the airport.

She had to admit, she didn't think she would ever make it to New York. At least, she didn't imagine it would be alone. After Aiden disappeared, she kind of let her dream of New York fade with the memories of him. But now she stood on the damp pavement, freezing air flooding her lungs with every inhale.

"Holy shit," she mutters when she sees the statue of liberty staring at her in the distance.

She was really here. Alone, but here.

It was bittersweet and she didn't know if she wanted to laugh or cry. Even if she got dragged back to LA, at least she was here now. This was all she had ever wanted.

A city far aware from Sofia, someplace she had never seen, where no one knows her. This was her peak in life, as sad as that sounds. With her skateboard clutched under her arm and her backpack of belongings on her back, she had never felt more alive than she did right now.

But now what? She's here, so what was her plan? For some reason, the fact that she didn't really have a plan didn't bother her. She could do anything. No one knew her or where she was from or why she was here. There probably wasn't even a missing persons report on her, at least there wouldn't be for a long time. Not until it affected Sofia directly.

So who the hell cared what she did? She started walking, deciding she would stop when she found somewhere she liked. That sounds like as good of a plan as she's capable of forming.

Lola drops her skateboard to the ground, wheels hitting the unfamiliar pavement, and her feet plant themselves on it. With one foot, she pushes into the unfamiliar flow of traffic. The air was cold, it was probably about noon if she was guessing right. With no phone, she couldn't exactly check the time whenever. But it was still cold in the middle of the day compared to Los Angeles.

The tip of her nose was cold, as well as her hands at her sides, the point of a slight sting. That didn't dampen her spirits though. In fact, she liked it.

This was the first time she had felt a lightness in her chest in...forever. Not even the hole in her jacket sleeve could bring her down. Maybe if there was snow and she had a hole in it, but right now it just gave her skin goosebumps.

She coasts across a crosswalk at a stoplight, car horns blasting at other cars and angry hand motions being thrown through windows. It made her smirk. At least road rage didn't change no matter what coast it was on. People were still the same, but at least these were new people. And at least there was an ocean.

That was always necessary when she dreamed of running away. There had to be saltwater somewhere nearby or she refused it. This resulted in her nickname "fishy" from Aiden, and therefore lead to the small tattoo of fish bones on her forearm.

For a 16-year-old, Lola was covered in a lot more tattoos than was legal without a parent's permission. None of them had been with her parent's permission, and she had about 35 give or take. All small, simple designs and every single one had a meaning and a story behind it. Like her cactus tattoo on the crease of her elbow.

When they were 13, she and Aiden stole her stepdads car to go to some party in the hills. But neither of them knew how to drive or knew where they were going so they ended up stranded on a deserted road surrounded by cacti. They had to call a tow truck and their adventure resulted in a nasty scar from Hector. The tattoo was covering it.

Thinking about it now, she snorted out loud. Despite what happened afterward, she held the memory close.

She coasted down the sidewalk, remembering the sweltering heat of the desert road. The car overheated and it had been cooler to sit on the pavement than inside. When the tow truck arrived, he found two teenagers with no licenses laying on beach towels in the middle of the road, laughing hysterically at seemingly nothing.

The smell of pumpkin bread smacked her in the face as she rounded the corner of a busy street. It was definitely lunchtime for the corporate buildings she was seeing. They all walked around as she came to a stop in front of the source of the smell.

Her mouth was watering as she peered inside the bakery called Sweet Treats. Pumpkin rolls, chocolate cake, cinnamon buns, nut rolls. Things she had never actually had the money to eat. And she didn't now either, but at least she was free to stare without an officer chasing her away in fear she would break the window.

Back in LA, she wasn't exactly on good terms with anyone of the law. She had been caught trespassing in the high school, breaking into motel rooms, smashing store windows as distractions to break into a different store. So whenever they saw her being remotely suspicious, cops chased her off with threats of jail time and a call home.

She enjoyed being able to stand on the street without every badge pointed in her direction, even if she didn't have the money to get one herself. At least, she didn't think she did. She hadn't really checked her bag since landing across the country.

There was a bench placed directly across from the bakery window, under a tree that provided a little shade. She took a seat, laying her skateboard beside her so no one could sit there.

As Lola scrambled through her belongings, she realized that this plan could have been a little more thought out. She could've taken the wallet off the guy in the bar, who's face was becoming a blur to her memory now. Her wallet had nothing but cobwebs and an old school ID she hadn't changed since last year.

The bag itself was an ugly brown that had stains of acrylic paint all over the body and straps. She pulled it out of a Goodwill donation bin when she was in 6th grade. After saving up the money she got from helping neighbors, she bought herself a brand new Dolphin bookbag. The first new bookbag she ever got for school and Sofia sold it the second it was left unattended for a day.

Half a pack of camel blue's, a flip lighter probably as old as she is, an empty notebook and pen sitting on top. She rolled her eyes at that one, how did that even end up in there? She tosses it aside and keeps digging. A pineapple-shaped luggage tag, her empty wallet, the plane ticket, and her picture.

Thank god the picture was facing down. She choked every time she looked at it, and she wasn't in the mood at the moment. But there were no loose dollars that she sometimes found flying around in there. She was only slightly upset that she wouldn't be eating lunch either because come on!

She's in New York!

That euphoric fact didn't quite stop her from casting another longing look at the window while she shoveled everything back into her bag.

"Oh, you poor thing!" The very sudden and very close voice almost made her jump from her skin. Lola had never turned around so fast in her life. For a terrifying minute, she was expecting Sofia to be glaring her down.

Despite the fact that this voice had a New York accent, and sounded like a smoker of 80 years. She looked like it too.

An old woman was standing beside the bench, so close that Lola wondered how she hadn't noticed her earlier. The smell of cigarettes and mothballs was almost intoxicating; and Lola enjoyed cigarettes. Her face was so wrinkled it was hard to distinguish where her features started and ended, but she could see the rather chilling smile poking through.

"You're only skin and bone!" she continues, "pretty girl like you surely needs to eat properly!"

Lola looks her over cautiously, brushing her short bangs from her forehead so she can get a better view of who she was sure was to be her kidnapper.

She was hunched over, a blue floral dress falling to her ankles to hide her entire body. A blue jacket covered her arms, and a gardening hat was on top of her head. You couldn't see a single detail about her, and that made Lola eager to get away from her.

"It's a new diet," she says casually as she places her board back onto the pavement, "watchin' the figure and all that jazz, ya know?" she stands up to make a bolt for it.

The woman gives a gravel-like laugh, "i can tell you're not from around here," she says, "a tourist?"

Lola rolls her board under her foot, trying to get across that she was ready to leave the conversation without being rude to this poor old lady, "somethin' like that."

The woman jerks a very pointed thumb nail at the bakery they were across from, "well then let me get you a muffin, dear! Can't have you walk around New York on an empty stomach!"

Every sense she had told Lola that it wasn't a good idea. Her common sense and her street sense told her to say no thanks and move on to find some kind of plan for being here. But she was starving. God, when was the last time she had something to eat at all?

She had a beer this morning, and she didn't get to finish it. Was it the stale pizza she stole from the cafeteria on Monday? The thought of a fresh blueberry muffin made her stomach practically scream. She looks back at the mysterious old lady, unsure but so hungry it wouldn't take much to persuade her.

"Just a gesture form an old lady," she laughs again like a screwdriver in a pencil sharpener, "all you have to do is keep me company while we wait."

Lola sighs, stepping on the edge of her board so she can grab the top with her hand. She shoves her free hand into her jacket pocket, "you drive a hard bargain, ma'am. But alright."

The woman waves her over to follow her to the door of the bakery. The inside smelled as good as it looked, but the aura was immediately different.

This definitely wasn't a good idea. All eyes turned to her like she walked in on some illegal meeting. Any noise that had been flowing came to a hushed stop, but the lady didn't stop walking towards the counter.

There was a handful of tables that scattered the floor, fold-out lawn tables mostly, with mismatching chairs that were all full. There was minimal art hanging on the wall, just a few pieces of what looked like historical armor decorations. It smelled of coffee and warm bread, very contradicting to the feeling she was getting. There were at least 12 pairs of eyes on her right now, not a single one willing to be the first to let up.

Lola froze with them, trying not to make direct eye contact. Which was difficult considering everywhere she looked there was another pair of eyes on her. Even behind the counter, the young woman was glaring at her like she could shoot lasers if she did it hard enough. The old lady, still nameless Lola realized, waddled up to the counter.

Lola cautiously followed her, not wanting to turn her back to the door. She felt like needles were being poked into her back. There still had yet to be movement.

"Lara, dear," the old woman says to the girl behind the counter, "let's get this girl a famous blueberry muffin, shall we?"

Lara smirked as if a joke was told that one she could hear. And Lola didn't like the look of it. Even the old lady chuckled in front of her. There was definitely some kind of code there.

That's when she finally heard someone start to speak again. Only it didn't echo like this empty building surely would. The voice seemed to come from directly over her shoulder, in her ear.

Get out of there, it sounded like an urgent shout of warning but felt like a whisper only she could hear, now! It willed with more of a rush.

As soon as the single word registered, she suddenly wasn't as hungry as she thought she was. She tightened her grip on her board and started to back up towards the door.

"Actually, Lara," she says with a nervous wave of her free hand, "I'm all right. I think I'll get something off the dollar menu at McDonald's."

There's a sound of a scarping chair coming from behind her, and she couldn't help but glance over. Everyone was wearing the same kind of smirk Lara was. And slowly, they were all standing from their lawn tables and antique chairs on the cement floors.

"Oh, please," Lara says, leaning on the counter as if preparing to watch a show, "it's on the house, little half-blood."

That odd insult was the least of Lola's worries. She was concerned with the guy who looked like an MMA fighter stalking towards her. And his sheer size wasn't what worried her, though he rivaled a Semi-cab and barely fit under the roof. It was his golden eyes with slit pupils like some kind of reptile. And his tattoos on his templed that looked like scales. ANd he was getting dangerously close, so she tried to back up a little faster.

He grinned, revealing a row of teeth like razors, and between them, a thin tongue slithered out with a forked end.

Definitely some kind of reptile-thing.

Her back came into contact with a wall. Or what felt like a wall. She looked over her shoulder, the air leaving her lungs for a second when she did.

She only knew it was the old woman because of the remnants of the shredded blue-floral dress that was hanging onto the body by a thread. She had no legs under it, a tangled mess of serpent bodies connected to 6 heads keeping her human torso up. Her hair was matted into what Lola could only comprehend as dreads. Bones dangled from the ends, though clearly not put there with a purpose. Just tangled into the mess of hair that was left.

Her eyes were sunken into her head, nothing but sockets staring Lola down as they could see straight through her. She grinned with teeth that looked like fish bones lodge into her head.

"Oh," is all Lola can think to say to the sight before looking around at the others who were surrounding her. Something told her that no one here was human, "fuck...I thought LA was weird."

"Tasty little half-blood," a squawking voice called to her side from the group. She couldn't pinpoint from where "we have to share!"

She had nothing to throw, no way out, not even an opening to make a run for it. She was pinned against the wiggling bodies of the serpent legs to the old lady behind her. She could feel the bodies of them wrapping around her legs, and she didn't want to look down for fear she'd throw up.

"I get first bite!" The old lady screeches like a banshee. The windows rattle at the sound, and Lola hopes someone looks through the window or at least peaks inside, "I found her!"

They probably wouldn't know what to do if they did see her, because she wouldn't. She doesn't know what to do and she's in the situation.

She clutches her board like it was a lifeline, staring at the ground as she tried to not look as terrified as she felt. That wasn't the first time her body froze in fear, but she still didn't know how to react.

At least she wasn't dying in that damn city surrounded by people she hated.

She feels something clawing up her back, just hard enough to hurt but not enough to break the skin along her spine. She sucks in a breath, feeling whatever it was hook under her jacket and shirt collar. She refuses to look up at whatever was about to kill her as her feet were lifted from the floor.

"Look at me, half-blood," the bone-chilling voice calls, "look at me when I bite your head off."

"Won't matter if I'm looking at you when I'm dead," wow. That came out with a lot more confidence than she had.

This fear was something she came to New York to get away from. The fact that she was about to die with it kind of....pissed her off.

She stole a plane ticket, ran away with nothing to her name, came to a city she was beginning to think she made up, and she was going to die without seeing the empire state building up close. By the hands of an old lady with snakes for legs. Aiden wouldn't believe this when she saw him again.

If she saw him again. At least that was one good thing to come out of this life. But for now, she could die pissed instead of scared.

"I said LOOK AT ME!" the thing wailed again, hot spit flying onto Lola's face and burning like embers from a fire.

The building shook with the force of the voice. And it kept shaking when it stopped shouting. The trembling of the building shook the armor that was on the wall, clattering loudly and making the other creatures laugh. But the tremors got bigger and bigger until Lola felt the thing holding her begin to wobble.

It hadn't been her voice to shake the building. The building itself was moving, Lola realized.

A particularly harsh jostle shakes the room, even Lara seemed to gasp in shock. It felt like a train was passing right by the street they were on, even hanging in the air Lola could feel it. She was familiar with the feeling. An earthquake.

She took her chance, getting over the shock of realization rather quickly. They were all thrown off by the sudden loss of balance.

She lifted her converse-covered foot, slamming it into the scaled chest of the creature, and pushing with every ounce of strength she had in her 5'5" frame. She didn't think that was much, but the monster flew back into the glass door like a weight had been thrown at it. Lola tumbled towards the ground.

She had to be a good 6 feet up. Her knees almost buckled when she hit the ground, but she managed to keep herself up.

When she hit the ground, the trembling of the earth seemed to increase ten-fold. At least, around her, it looked like it did. The few pieces of armor on the walls clattered to the ground, flying around with the movements like a frisbee. The tables were being tossed around like they were being thrown off a plane, and the crowd around her was forced to scatter to find their footing. Some of them collapsed to the ground, their claws leaving marks in the cement as they tried to steady themselves.

Lola knew she didn't have time to wonder why they were all being so dramatic. This felt like she was walking on a boat.

The old woman monster was blocking the door, scrambling around in the shattered glass to try and get back up. She saw Lola making a sprint through a gap in the crowd.

"Get the half-blood!" she cries.

Eyes turned to her again as she ran for the counter that was displaying cookies and cupcakes and muffins. Lara was on the ground behind it, trying to grab on the leg of a coffee maker to pull herself up. But the coffee maker was sliding around as much as she was, making it useless.

There was a sickening crack of wood as Lola scrambled her way around the counter, missing the pieces of shattered plates that had fallen from their shelves to the ground. She knew it was the supports of the building around them all trying to buckle.

Behind her, she heard the roaring and shouting of everyone trying to stand and trying to run. She heard the shattering of the display cases, "ouch!" and the angry shouts of the old later when Lola made it to the door that leads to the kitchen.

She had to ignore the shouting or she would freeze again thinking about what was behind her. She had to focus on making her way to the back door before the building came down.

Cookie sheets and tins were clattering onto the ground, pots and pans falling around her as metal tables and kitchen knives went sliding across the floor. There was the sound of cracking cement, the ceiling about to fold above her.

"I SAID GET HER YOU IDIOTS! SHE'S LUNCH!"

Move faster, Lola tells herself, just get outside.

She pushes a rolling bakers tables aside when it tried to block her path, just as the door behind flung open and slammed into the industrial fridge behind her. She had never felt more adrenaline in her life than she did at that moment, pushing her legs to run as fast as they could over the moving earth.

Her hands pressed to the metal door that said "EMERGENCY EXIT ONLY" and shoved just as she heard metal snapping behind her. Her feet were barely passed the door when the last support gave out under her.

The crumbling stone and cement hitting the ground sent a shock wave so strong Lola was sent flying onto the back alley sidewalk. She curled up, preparing for the neighboring building to go collapsing as well and crush her entirely. Her legs ached when the weight was lifted off of them, but the muscles were still tensed in stress.

With her skateboard sucked between her legs and her hands over her head, she felt the trembling of the ground start to slow. She didn't move for a moment longer after it had come to a stop.

She could hear car alarms blaring from the streets as well as sirens from emergency teams. She holds her breath and slowly lifts her head, waiting for the dust to settle from the fallen bakery.

The two-story building had entirely collapsed, a pike of rubble where she was standing a few minutes ago. Dust covered her entire body when she glanced down at herself to make sure she had all of her limbs attached.

Had 12 people just died in there? Or creatures? She really hoped so.

Slowly, she starts to push herself into a sitting position to get her bearings. She was in a back alley, and no one seemed to see her stumbling out of the building. Those things were dead, and now she had to process what just happened. She reaches for the bag that had managed to stay attached to her, shaky hands rummaging for the half-pack of camels she still had.

"Half.....Blood," she froze, head snapping back up and her eyes turning into dinner plates. The rubble was starting to shift from the bottom. A few large pieces were starting to shake. She drops her cigarettes into her bag and scrambles to her feet. She hopes this surge of adrenaline lasts a second longer. As soon as it's over, she knew she was going to collapse.

At least now, she had a chance to run. She could get help if anyone would believe her. But she came to the end of the alley and spun around, looking for....something. A person? An officer? What the hell is she supposed to say?

"Officer! There's an old lady chasing me with snakes for legs, you have to help!"

She wouldn't even believe herself. So she stood there, trying to think of somewhere to go, spinning in circles as her mind raced in NASCAR. Sofia suddenly seemed like a better option than this.

Or maybe the same.

Was nowhere safe? Did this happen regularly in New York?

Suddenly feeling hopeless, Lola places her palms on the top of her head and grunts to herself. Behind her, the rubble could be heard shifting some more.

"Half...blood!" the smoker's voice was so loud to her despite being so far away right now.

Her hands felt warm, and she brought them down to see if she was bleeding. But no red stained her hands or her hair, and she looked up to see if the sun had come out to watch her death.

Yes, the sun was out. But she was more concerned with what looked like a pitchfork hovering over her, A blue-ish glow coming from it, it was a few feet above her head on its side and pointing. Oddly, it wasn't the most shocking thing she had seen in the last 10 minutes. That cake went to snake-legs.

She looked in the direction it was pointed, expecting shiny gates to be waiting for her. Or flaming ones would make more sense in her case. But no, they were pointing at a parking meter that was bent out of shape from falling debris.

Well, it was probably pointing to what was by it. And if it wasn't, it still managed to be a beacon for her.

Lola had never learned how to properly drive a car. Sofia refused to pay the fee for drivers ed classes. She did, however, know how to drive any motorcycle put in front of her thanks to Aiden. She didn't have a license for that either, but she almost cried at the sight of a Triumph Bonneville sitting in a parking spot. Unattended. In her time of need.

She sprinted towards her, throwing herself over the back to land in the seat. People were starting to emerge from surrounding buildings, looking at the fallen building before them. The only fallen building, Lola realized. And it was completely crushed, even the door nothing but a pile of metal and glass on the other side.

Lola reaches for the side bag that was hanging by her leg. Apparently, theft wasn't a common thing on this side of the country, because she found a spare key hanging out in the bottom on the bag past a pair of sunglasses and a pack of gum.

The bike roars to life under her, and it was the most comforting thing she had ever felt before. Behind her, the sound of smashing stone and wood tells her that the old lady had found a way out. She hears the screech of her voice, "GET THE HALF-BLOOD!"

She hit the throttle with enough force to fling her off if she hadn't been expecting it, not entirely sure where to go but with no better ideas.

"My bike! That's my bike!" she goes flying past an angry-looking man with a leather jacket and an angry face. She didn't have time to laugh in his face before he was in the rearview mirror.

She's just driving, waiting to hear the dreaded sound of something behind her. Probably feet if that thing was fast enough to go 120 in the city. Or wings. Wings wouldn't shock her at this point.

Lola snatches the sunglasses from the side-bag, sliding them on so she could see the road clearly. Out of curiosity, she looks up at the sky. The pitchfork was still there, hovering over her, but pointing in a different direction than before. It was pointing to the next right turn she could see, like a google maps guide but in real life.

"What the hell is happening?" she mutters to herself as she whips a right turn and barely missed a tree that had fallen and blocked half the road during the earthquake, "I should have kept going. I should have said no to the muffin. I should have stayed in LA."

But she followed the glowing pitchfork anyway, hoping that whatever higher power that was guiding her knew what they were doing.


	3. What an Entrance

Lola didn't know New York had back roads until she was on one, going as fast the motorcycle would allow even if the engine sounded like a bomb waiting to go off.

Her hand didn't let off the throttle even when the pitchfork told her to turn on a random road. She was paranoid that every sound behind her was that...thing coming after her. She didn't have the courage to look, so she just hoped. The speedometer didn't dip below 120 the entire hour she had been driving.

She had to be close at this point. If not, then this pitchfork was a bust and she wasted an entire tank of gas following it. But every road looked the same, so she couldn't tell if she was going in a circle or not. She didn't really understand why she was putting so much faith in what was probably a hallucination. Maybe she would just ignore it. New York was a big place, she could probably find a safe place on her own.

As if sensing her doubt in what was happening, she feels a pulsing warmth above her and glances up. The pitchfork was glowing a little brighter now, like a flickering light bulb. It was also slowly turning to point to another road they were coming up on.

"What the fuck am I doing?" She mutters to herself and takes the turn going 120mph. The bike leaned so far she could feel her knee skimming the dirt road, but she pulled it back up and continues barreling down the path.

The flat land began to turn into hills, and as she went farther, plants began to spring from the ground in orderly rows. They were apparently approaching on some kind of farm that was huddle into the trees. The forest was slowly closing in around the property, and it felt very ominous. Not scary, per se. Nothing could be scarier than the ghost rider with snakes for legs she just witnessed. But it did make her try and go faster. If that was possible.

She could tell the throttle could be pulled any farther. The fields were a blur on either side, and the narrowing road was slowly turning into a walking path. Still, she didn't slow down. If someone walked in front of her, they were dead. She wouldn't have time to register the speed bump before she would be a mile away.

As she rode over another hill, she found a blue house standing on a hill at the very top of the next one. She was going too fast to be able to see the details of it, but she knew it was a blue farmhouse at the most. The approach of it made her start to relax, or maybe it was the comforting warmth coming from the pitchfork. Whatever it was, she allowed the bike to slow to 110.

She got to the end of the driveway before she started to pull on the breaks. That's when she realized how fast she was going, or more like when it registered. She pulls harder as the porch draws near.

Suddenly the front tire collapses like she had run into the wall. She gasps as the back wheel keeps moving. The bike lifts in a reverse wheelie and crumples against a wall she still couldn't see. She goes flying at east 80 miles per hour right at the farmhouse.

More specifically, at the solid wood railing. Her back hits it first, and she has to squeeze her eyes shut to avoid the splinters that flew when it shattered under her. It only succeeded in slowing her down, not stopping her entirely.

She crashed through the front window, glass ripping apart the back of her jacket and the t-shirt underneath. She felt the shards cutting at her cheeks and she clamped her mouth shut to avoid screaming.

"Oh, my gods!" She hears as her back slams into the stone fireplace. She felt and heard something crack loud and clear when she bounced onto the ground.

After a dizzying moment of not knowing what just happened, she peels her eyes open. The world spins and the only way she's positive she's still alive is the pulsing warmth coming from the pitchfork that was still above her. At least, she thinks that's what it is. When she turns her head, she thinks she might blackout.

People were standing around the room. About 20 of them from the looks of it, and all were staring at her in a mixture of shock and confusion.

She had crashed into a fireplace, smashing a few pictures and a flower vase it seemed. The water from the vase had soaked her back, but it could also be blood from the window.

"Wear your helmets, kids," she says as she begins to sit up.

The sting in her back wasn't nearly as strong as it should be for going through a window and porch railing. She brushed it off as the adrenaline from the long day she had already had. She pushed herself up into a sitting position, groaning as she felt dripping liquid down her back.

"Holyshit," Lola mutters and weakly shakes out her arms to get the glass pieces off of her sleeves. A groan escapes when she bends, her ribs protesting. Something was definitely broken.

"I wouldn't do that," she looks towards the voice to focus on her audience. A large group of teenagers was huddled around a ping pong table in lawn chairs that had been shoved around when she came flying over them. All were wearing matching shirts, bright orange with "camp half-blood" on the fronts. The blonde boy with tan skin and a bow and quiver on his back, "you definitely broke something, there."

She grunts, "I coulda told you that," she says and reaches up for the throbbing spot on her head. As she takes in her predicament, she hears another person speak.

"Is that..."

"Yeah."

They were all staring at the space above her head. The pitchfork was still pulsing warmth onto her, but when it was noticed she felt the warmth slowly fade. She looks up with them, watching it fade into the air like smoke. At least she knew it wasn't a hallucination now.

"Oh great," the older man sporting a dark beard and Hawaiian print shirt groans loudly, "another one."

As if everyone else was too scared to help her, someone finally starts walking towards her. He was slow at first like he was waiting for her to blow up. But he reached her and held out a hand for her to grab.

She looks up, feeling a bit of blood trickling from her forehead where a piece of glass went into her skin. He was tall and lean, with a mess of black hair that almost covered his eyes when he bent down to hold out his hand. His eyes were wide enough for her to see how green they were. Either he had a bad case of bug-eye, or she looked as shit as she felt.

"There's two of them now," she hears a small voice whispering to someone else, "what about the....ya know."

Lola looks over at them, grabbing the stranger's hand when she realizes she won't be able to stand on her own right now. He pulls her up, her ribs screaming in protest. She groans, hunching over once she's on her feet. She was suddenly thankful she hadn't eaten all day because it would be coming back up from pain right now.

"How did you get here?" Asks the guy who had helped her up. He was standing beside her, rather awkwardly as she was hunched over and trying desperately to get in a deep breath.

Lola coughs, "bike," she huffs and motions with a hand to the shattered window.

When everyone looked through it, they saw the crumpled remains of what was once a really nice bike. It was crumpled into a ball of metal and plastic. When Lola followed their eyes, she saw her bag hanging from the what was left of the handle. It must've gotten caught when she crashed. Thankfully, from where she was standing, it didn't look like anything had fallen out.

"No," a blonde girl with gray eyes says, "how did you get here? How did you find this place?"

She couldn't get in enough breath to form a full sentence. All she can huff out is, "pitchfork," before coughing erupts and her knees start to weaken. She leans forward, no matter how much it hurts. Blood splatters onto the sleeve she used to cover her mouth with.

"Shit," the blonde boy who first spoke says, "It's probably a punctured lung. Maybe a rib."

She nods more to herself and thinks, oh nice.

A gruff voice responded first. The room was starting to fuzz so she couldn't tell where it was from, "Will, take her to the infirmary. We can ask questions when she's okay to talk."

The blonde boy approaches and she feels her muscles tensing involuntarily when he reaches for her arm. She would rather suffocate than have a total stranger drag her away. She pulls her arm from her grip despite her body starting to sway.

"I'm trying to help you," he huffs when his hand is refused.

"I'm fine, blondie," it was the longest sentence she had managed since crashing. She doesn't see it, but he raises an eyebrow and looks at the boy who was still next to her.

"I'll get her," the boy says and he reaches for her next. She feels his presence getting closer and on instinct, she jerks away.

"I said I'm fine!" but the force she used to move was too much on her already shaky legs. She tumbles to the ground, falling on her back again. The world goes in a circle and darkness dots her vision. The ceiling is all she can see and it was getting darker by the second.

"Oh yeah! Completely fine!" the sarcasm was the last thing she heard.


	4. Half-brother?

Lola had never been a fan of sleeping. For two reasons, mostly. One; there were much better things to be doing with her time than absolutely nothing. Like hustling at the bar for money, or trying to find her next meal, or looking for an alley doorway with enough of a roof to shield her from the rain. She had more important matters, like survival, other than comfort.

And the second reason; her sleep was never pleasant.

Nightmares had riddled her since she was 6-years-old. And not normal nightmares that kids have. She didn't dream of a monster under her bed or in her closet. Her monster slept down the hall and shared a bed with Sofia.

She would dream that he left home early. Before she got into her hiding place in her room. He would see her and be reminded that Sofia had a life before him. His fist would collide with her back, her bones were pop and crack and hurt.

Sometimes the dreams were of him hitting Sofia. Because she overcooked dinner. Not that she made him stop. She would take every slap and kick and then yell at Lola when it was over.

They weren't always dreams, though.

Being knocked out was like a personal hell for her. Unable to wake up no matter how hard she pinched herself. As she curled into the corner of her bed in her childhood bedroom, a room she hadn't actually slept in for 6 years, she begged and pleaded with herself to wake up. She could feel her heart hammering, feel the blood rushing in her ears as she tried to drown out his voice.

"You were never wanted by anyone," he would remind her, "we're taking care of you because we're required to by law."

She couldn't move her mouth. She could never tell him to shut up. The one person she could never stand up to.

Maybe this wasn't a dream. Oh god, what if it was real and that's why she can't wake up? As if the intense fear from that alone was enough, her room disappeared and she was left floating in darkness for a moment. The nice place between sleep and awake.

She could hear a voice. Not one she knew, and that relaxed her. It was new, meaning she wasn't back in LA.

"She'll be okay. A few shattered ribs and some internal bleeding, but I gave her enough ambrosia to reset them myself and stop the bleeding."

She cracked her eyes open, intense light glaring at her and making her flinch. A wooden roof was staring down at her. She was laying on something uncomfortably soft and she wiggles her limbs in discomfort. As she peels her eyelids apart, she slowly looks around.

"There she is," the voice says a little closer this time, "because of you, I have to add motorcycles to the list of banned activities for campers. I'm pretty impressed with that crash."

She follows the voice, squinting past the sunlight coming past the window. She can vaguely recognize the boy from before she passed out. He had been trying to take her somewhere.

Her heart was still hammering in fear, her hands shaking even while half-awake. Even though she was in a completely different state, with no idea what was going on, she was so relieved to not be at home. She hadn't been able to wake up and he was so close to her. She could almost feel his hand on her thighs again.

She wasn't aware of it, but her eyes were glistening. Normally, she would rather pluck her own eyes out before crying in front of a stranger, but she wasn't in control of her reactions right now. So she didn't feel her usual anger when the tears flowed.

The boy looked at her in shock. He was messing with some bandages and what looked like rubbing alcohol, but froze when he noticed her tears as she looked around the room. He put down his medical supplies.

"You're okay," he tells her, awkwardly approaching her bedside, "you're safe here, now."

She wanted to laugh at him when he said that but had no energy to do so. All she can do is look around the room and try to find something to distract herself.

"You had a bad day last time you were awake," he says, "Chiron figured that Earthquake had something to do with you, and then the crash. We all have them, but you're fine now."

If only that was why she was crying. She started to regain her entire mind back from the fogginess she had around herself. Once she realized she was crying, she took a deep breath and went to push herself up. Her movements made the boy try and push her back down.

"Don't do that, yet," he tells her in exasperation, "you're not entirely healed," she glared at him with red eyes and stained cheeks while pushing herself up all the way, "I just reset your ribs so if you move them again I'll kill you myself."

"Big talk for 5'5"," she mutters to him loud enough to be heard.

He hardens his eyes, "okay. Whatever. I'm gonna get Chiron and Percy."

He turns on his heels and stalks from the room. Then she was finally allowed to look around. She was in what looked like it was once a living room of the farmhouse she remembered crashing into.

The room looked like a hospital ward, with beds lining both sides that were empty except for hers. At both ends were large windows that flooded the room with light, and a few feet away from her bed was a large doorway. Beyond that, she saw the room she had crashed into.

The room was now swept clean of the shattered glass and wood she trailed in. And the large window was covered in what looked like a white sheet. Thankfully, it didn't seem to be as cold here as it was in the rest of New York. At least, it didn't feel like it inside.

She looks towards the window that her bed was directly under, but she couldn't see out of it with it being so high. Sighing, she starts to push herself up to stand on the bed. When she's wobbling on the mattress, her head is over the sill and she can see outside.

It looked like some sort of summer camp. Kids were all running around in matching shirts like she had seen earlier. Some were in groups, others in pairs, and some were running around alone. She could see a large volleyball field, a pavilion full of empty tables. How had she ended up at a camp? In the middle of january where it looked like summer, no less.

"Good gods, woman!"

The sudden and angry voice directly behind her scared her from her skin. She spun, forgetting about the broken ribs and losing her balance. She puts her hands down to catch herself as she falls with her legs on the bed and her torso about to hit the ground. Her ribs smash into the mattress.

"Oh fuck..." she whimpers as pain spreads through her body. Immediately, hands are grabbing at her to help her up and lift her back onto the bed.

"Why can't you just sit still?! Is it a Poseidon kid thing?"

"Will..." the voice from the only person who helped her up yesterday speaks from her opposite side. It's the boy with dark hair and 'Will' the apparent doctor that shove her back into the bed, "don't."

Will huffs through his nose, and the sound of heavy footsteps approaching catches everyone's attention. Lola looks up when her back is on the pillow.

"Well maybe if you hadn't run off without answering any questions, I would have stayed still," she says to Will in a hoarse voice. Her throat was rough, but it didn't hurt.

He narrows his blue eyes at her and says, "I hope your rib rebroke."

"Will," another voice jumps from behind the two figures. Said boy turns around, "leave her alone. She's had a rough time."

"But she-" he looks at Lola in shock, "did you not hear her?!"

"You should join your cabin at the Archery range."

Will scoffs and stomps away again and Lola smirks at his back. She had the effect of rage on those she spoke to. But when he was done blocking her view of the other voice, she almost wanted him to come back and check her eyes.

From the waist up, there was an english professor standing in the doorway. A suit jacket with elbow patches, a trimmed brown beard, and slicked back brown hair. But from the waist down, there was a white horse. Like the kind knights ride on in fairytales. A swishing tail and four legs were clomping towards her.

Lola raises a hand to her head, feeling for the bump she was sure would be there. But her head felt fine if not for a little stuffiness from her unwanted nap. The Dark haired boy takes a seat in the chair that was by her bed, but she couldn't look away from the apparent half man half horse.

"It's nice to finally meet you, Lola," he says casually, "I'm Chiron, the activities director here at camp."

"You're...you're..." she can only muster that word while her mind tried to wrap around what was standing in front of her.

"A centaur, yes," he says casually and stands at the foot of her bed. His hands fold behind his back, resting on the curve of the soft looking coat he had, "and the head director here is the god of wine and theatre. I was hoping to ask you a few questions myself before answering yours, since I'm sure you have many."

She had no time to process his words beyond the "god of wine and theatre" since her brain started to short-circuit, "we can start simple. How did you find this place?"

She saw no point in lying and telling them she used google maps. At this rate, a floating pitchfork was the most normal part about this whole thing. This centaur was staring her down and waiting, very patiently, for an answer. Like he had forever for her response.

"Um...the pitchfork," she says finally, "I just followed where it was pointing."

"The pitchfork?" Chiron asks for confirmation. She nods her head, "you mean the trident."

"Same thing," she mutters and leans back on the pillow. She folds her arms, feeling her bare skin as she's sitting in her black AC/DC tank top. She usually wore her jacket when she felt so exposed, but it was nowhere to be seen. Neither was her bag.

"The same thing happened with Tyson," the boy beside her bed says to Chiron, "he was led here by a trident too."

She looks towards him, as if forgetting his presence. Was he the god of wine and theatre that was mentioned?

"Lola," she looks back at Chiron as he calls to her, "that earthquake in the city. Were you nearby when it happened?"

She suddenly felt like lying was a good idea. He knew her name, and he was clearly about to blame something on her. But what did she have to lose by saying yes?

"Yeah," she says, "it took down a bakery I was in. But what does that have to do with...anything?"

"When you were inside, did any of the other customers seem...strange?" He bypassed her question with his own. In her mind, she saw pictures of that old lady who wasn't actually an old lady. She was a gross serpent creature with no legs who kept calling her a very racist term.

"I'm from LA," she says, "everybody's strange looking there."

The boy speaks up beside her, "you came all the way here from Los Angeles?" He asks.

She shrugs, "I had a long weekend."

"Did you come alone? You're like 14."

She turns to glare at him, "I'm 16, asshole," she snaps, "and I don't think my travel buddy is any of your business," even though her 'travel buddy' was a skateboard and half a pack of cigarettes that she was missing right now. The unnamed boy seemed shocked at her small outburst.

"There's that Poseidon sass," someone rounds the corner behind Chiron, "I was wondering when the talk of the camp would finally wake up."

There was a man holding a capri-sun suddenly standing at the end of her bed as well. In a hawaiian shirt and khakis. She felt very small all of a sudden, and very weak. She didn't like it. She never liked when she felt like this, and she wanted to get out of the situation immediately.

"Well I'm awake," she says and wraps her arms around herself. Her ribs protest but she ignores the screaming pain, "what camp, anyway? Where am I?"

"You're at camp-half blood," the nameless boy beside her answers her first, "it's a place for kids like us?"

"Like us?" She asks. Her voice sounded exhausted even to her, "what's that mean?"

"Well...half human...half god," he leans forward on his knees, as if choosing his words carefully, "greek god. Like Zeus, Hades....Poseidon."

"Yeah, okay, sure. Why not?" she's more talking to herself than anyone else around her. Her? Half god? That was downright hilarious. However, what was more unbelievable was that some god, some other-worldly being, had gotten with Sofia Park.

Her mother. Maybe they took her heart with them, whoever they were, when they left. That would explain a lot about her childhood. But, then again, so did being not entirely human. That was...kind of comforting. In a weird way. Maybe that's why her mother hated her so much, because she knew she wasn't human.

"And that 'pitchfork' was your father leading you here the only way he could," Chiron says it casually, "the trident is the symbol of Poseidon."

Poseidon. She showed up to enough history classes to know that Poseidon was the god of the ocean, and water in general. Maybe that made sense. It put a few puzzle pieces into place for her. It also put a few things in place for Sofia, who had been quite a surfer before she had Lola. There were trophies lining the cabinets in that wretched house of hers. She liked to tell Lola that having her was the end of her dreams and the start of her damnation.

"Which brings us to another problem," Hawaiin shirt says, "Poseidon seems to have broken the oath, not once but, twice, in two years. As if Peter wasn't enough trouble by himself."

She didn't have the energy to ask who Peter was, or what oath they were talking about. This was turning into one giant mess of problems, and she liked ignoring problems until they went away.

"Is my bike okay?" Lola asks as she swivels on the bed, "it's my ride out of this nuthouse," her feet drop to the ground, her heart hammering in her chest, "and all my shit."

"Your bag is at your cabin," Chiron tells her calmly, "but I think it's best you remain here, Lola Park."

It was a lot to take in over the course of 5 minutes. This room of strangers knew more about her than she did. At least, on her father's side apparently. Centaurs, the god of wine, the god of the sea. But....she didn't think this was the most shocking thing she had ever heard before. Not by a long shot. It felt familiar and calm, and that was more terrifying than the monster at the bakery. It made her feet tingle in the need to run away.

She shakes her head, "you shouldn't even know my full name," she says angrily, "let alone more about my father than I do. So no, I'm not staying."

Normally, her attitude like this angered people around her. It got her suspended, kicked out, and hated. It made people write her off as irritable and...well, a bitch. She expected this time to be the same, and to be thrown from the bed she had given to rest.

But Chrion only hummed and looked at her curiously, "I suppose it is your choice in the end," he says, "we never force half-bloods to stay," he looks towards the boy who was still sitting in the chair beside the bed, "Percy. If you'll show your sister to the cabin for her things, I'll tell the Hephestus cabin that the owner of the bike is awake."

A lot more to unpack in that sentence alone. Percy, now the name of the boy in the chair, stands up to comply. Her half-brother, apparently, if he was the Peter talked about before. He nods towards the doorway and looks back at Lola.

"Come on," he tells her, "it's across camp. Think you can walk that far?"

She huffs and pulls herself to her feet, "I'm fine," she says. It was becoming her mantra while in this house.

She follows Percy from the room and to the white front door of the farmhouse. As they walk by the room from before, she notices that it was indeed a sheet covering the broken window. And once outside, she can see that the broken banister had been completely removed and the side was now open. Though, the blonde girl sitting on the edge didn't seem to mind. She looked quite comfortable.

She looks over her shoulder as the door opens and the two walk through. She turns, eyes moving rapidly from Percy to Lola, but not saying anything.

"I'll see you for Archery," Percy tells her with a slight shake of his head. The blonde can only nod as her eyes settle on Lola for good, watching her descend the stairs like she was under a microscope.

Lola raises her eyebrows at her in a "we got a problem?" way. She hated being stared at, by anyone. Aiden used to do it just to piss her off. It was a quick way to start what ended with a black eye on both ends. Blondie doesn't react, and Lola was finding that was the way everyone here reacted.

"We're cabin three," says Percy as he starts walking across the grass. They were going in the opposite direction of the volleyball field that she could still see when she looked behind her, "it's pretty nice, right by the creek. If you follow it, there's a dock by the lake that's quiet. The nymphs there are calm."

Lola takes in a deep breath, watching as they pass by the fields she can remember from her hectic drive. From this close, she could see that they were strawberries.Tiny red berries dotted the green plants. It was January, how were they still growing like this? Or at all. She didn't know much about agriculture, but she didn't think it was strawberry season.

"Nymphs," She repeats the word. Her eyes were trained on the strawberry plants, wondering what they tasted like. They looked good, and she always liked the smell of strawberry things in stores. But those weren't always accurate, she knew that from the smell of chocolate. They kept walking past the fields.

"It's a lot to take in all at once," Percy says and her eyes move back forward, "I still can't believe half the stuff that goes on here."

As he says it, her eyes drift to their other side. They were climbing over a hill and when they reached the top, she could see that it dipped in a valley. She finally saw the camp that Chrion had mentioned.

The closest building was more of a pavilion, just a roof with support beams and no walls .Inside was a burning fire, with people poking sticks in it and pulling them out to hammer them on metal tables. It was clearly a forge, though Lola had never seen on before.

Percy was already walking down the hill and into the valley. She followed, not wanting to get lost in the mess that was below them. But her eyes didn't want to blink in case any of this was gone when she opened them again. As they came back to solid ground, she could hear wooden clattering coming from her side.

"Watch out!" She jumps and looks over just in time to see a chariot, yes a chariot, hurdling right for her. But that wasn't what freaked her out. That went to the winged horses that were pulling the chariot. Two of them. One bright dazzling white with dove-like wings, and one shimmering blue with wings the color of a hummingbird. Beautiful, but also about to trample her if she didn't move.

"Sorry my lord! Sorry my lady!" the chariot goes whizzing past, and she notices the distinct lack of a driver in it. Just being carried by two pegasus. Who the hell just spoke?

She watched the chariot sprint out of sight and towards what looked like the outside of some stables.

"I call them Hansel and Gretle," Percy says when he notices her staring, "they're siblings."

Lola finally makes eye contact with him, the pure shock on her face making him smirk. Did she mention the talking pegasus? Was that normal here? He motions for her to keep following him, so he must not have heard it. Maybe she really was crazy. What if those were just normal horses?

"You're not crazy," he says as she moves to keep up with him. She almost didn't hear him as she watched the world move around her.

There were people bustling around like it was LAX, but all of them were kids. The oldest looked to be about 17, maybe 18 if she squinted. Everyone had a matching shirt like Percy's, bright orange with "Camp Half-Blood" written across the front. But everyone made it their own in some way. Jacket's, scarves, pins, buttons; everyone was making it their own. She liked that. No two people were the same, even the few sets of twins she noticed.

But they were all also carrying weapons, and some had shields too. But no one was without a sword or bow or dagger strapped to their person. The ones with shields had them on their backs like turtle shells. One girl even had her sword pulled out and was showing it to a group of kids around her. The others were admiring it like it was the newest toy they all wanted for christmas. Was that a 6-year-old trying to hold it?

"They talk to us," Percy's voice is vaguely heard through the fog of her shock.

"Huh?" She asks distantly, watching the girl twirl her sword around in the sunlight so it glinted.

"The pegasus," he continues without looking over his shoulder, "our dad kind of created horses, so we can talk to them. And fish, but that's a given."

At this point, new information wasn't being processed, just stored for a look over tonight when she was alone. She could only follow him with a blank face towards wherever he was leading her. The "cabin" if she remembered right. A lot had happened since she had left the house.

"So you really came all the way here by yourself? Your mom didn't come with you?" Percy suddenly moves on to asking personal questions. This brought her head back to earth.

Lola scoffs, "No....no. Just me."

"Does she know you're here?"

"No."

"You didn't leave her a note? Or a call?"

"No."

"Is that the only response I'm getting?"

"Yes."

They were coming closer to probably the biggest cluster of buildings and people she had seen so far. There were buildings, all probably big enough to be a house by themselves. But each one was so...different from each other. And kids were walking around like they were in their own front yards, the younger ones playing tag and the older ones gossiping in groups.

"These are the cabins," Percy says casually, "there used to be 12, for the 12 olympians. But after a...deal with the gods, we've had to build more so there's about 20 now."

That sounded right to her. They all sat in a U shape around the grassland they were on. Behind the largest two at the end, she could see the lake Percy had mentioned. It sparkled in the oddly sunny day. She moved on to look at the rest that surrounded her the further in she went.

She isn't sure how she picked out such a specific person to stare at it. It was the back of some kid standing in front of a stone cabin that she thought looked a lot like a mausoleum in a cemetery. Probably because he was the only one besides her that wasn't wearing a neon orange shirt. Instead, he wore a black t-shirt and jeans, and his head was ducked down as he fiddled with something in his hands.

Something about the way he stood, hunched like he didn't want to be seen, felt so familiar. His dark hair was to his shoulders, and that's what made her second guess herself.

Until he turned to the side. He was glaring at something to his left, but she wasn't sure what. It was too loud to tell if someone yelled his name.

Because she knew his name. She froze in place, staring at his side profile like she had been shot in the chest. He gave an eye roll, not interested in whatever had moved his attention from his hands. Percy noticed her movement stop and turned to look at her, stopping as well.

"What?" He questions what made her look so uneasy, "you look ready to puke. It's a lot, I know but--"

She was already walking away from him, stalking towards the boy she knew better than he knew himself. Percy's words fell short and all she catches is a small, "Lola?"

The boy had his head ducked back down, but she still knew him. She walked up to him with no fear, despite everyone making a circle around him when they walked to avoid his presence. He wouldn't do anything to her. At least, not before she did anything to him. Who knows what's changed about him in 3 years.

"Aiden Scottson!" She says loud and clear. He jumps at the sound, spinning around to look at her. She was a few steps away from him.

His mouth dropped open in shock.

A black Arctic Monkeys t-shirt, plain jeans, black converse, a black bracelet with a skull on it, a new scar along his jaw bone. She took in all these details in a matter of seconds while he was still processing her arrival.

"L-Lola?"

She rears back a clenched fist and punches him in the jaw.


	5. Aim Higher Next Time

Two things cracked on impact when she punched Aiden. Her knuckles, and his jaw. Only one was the desired outcome.

Lola hisses, snatching her fist back towards her torso and holding it to her heaving chest. The pain that was sprouting from her hand and up her arm was almost numb. It definitely wasn't the worst thing she had felt since waking up, but something was broken.

Aiden shouts, doubling over and stumbling from impact. His eyes were the size of saucers, looking at her in shock as he held his slightly crooked jaw. That was also broken, so her own pain was worth it.

Everyone had stopped their gossiping and games to watch the commotion, shocked at what just happened. He didn't say anything when they made eye contact, mostly because he probably couldn't. But she was still clearly pissed, her eyes raging as she shook her hand. It was an attempt to make the pain stop but only made it worse. But she still had one good hand.

She clenches the still intact fist, taking a step forward and winding up to bruise him this time. He had a break already, and she wasn't aiming to kill. Yet.

"Hey!" Her good fist is grabbed in the air and she looks over to see Percy looking between her and Aiden, "let's not punch the first camper we make eye contact with, maybe? Not a good impression."

"Don't touch me!" She snatches her hand from his grip, finally moving her eyes from Aiden.

Everybody was staring at them. Literally, anyone within watching distance was looking at them. She hated being the center of attention. She holds her broken knuckles to her chest and sneers at a group who was giggling.

"Enjoy the show, Mary-sue?!"

The girls continue to giggle but turn their eyes to each other. Percy had left her side when she clearly didn't want help and was reaching for Aiden. Everyone started to go back to their own business when they saw she wasn't getting in a second punch.

"I'm guessing you two know each other?" Percy sighs when he sees Aiden's bleeding lip, "or do you just break anyone's jaw?"

She said nothing, looking back at the boy who left her behind. He was already looking at her like she was a ghost. Like she was the one who died.

Maybe she should be releived that he was okay. Three years of thinking he was drowned in the river or dead in a ditch and he was perfectly healthy and happy on a strawberry farm in Long Island, New York. But she wasn't relieved. She was pissed. He had willing walked away from his family, from his friends, from her. She thought they would run together. That's what he always told her.

The lack of response from both injured parties made Percy roll his eyes, "well I guess we're going back to Will," he says in annoyance, "you're gonna have to wait to leave. Unless you can drive with a broken hand."

She doesn't look away from Aiden when she answers, "it's a knuckle. I'm fine."

She couldn't tell if the noise Aiden made was a scoff or a laugh muffled by his broken jaw. No matter what it was, she knew what he was probably thinking. Or what he would've been thinking if this happened three years earlier. A broken knuckle wasn't the worst thing she's gotten in a fight. A broken jaw, however, was up there for him. She wondered if his skull fracture when they were 10 hurt worse.

"You have three broken ribs, a broken knuckle, and some anger issues. You're going to Will for at least two of those things."

"'roken r'is?" Aiden asks.

Percy was already pushing Aiden in the direction they had come from, motioning for Lola to walk behind them as he did. She didn't have any choice but to follow them. She didn't know what cabin she could run to for her things, she didn't know where anything was from here. And she didn't want to stand in the middle of a field surrounded by people who were clearly invested in whatever drama they caught sight of. So she followed while grumbling.

She had been angry at the world since Aiden disappeared. Jusitifiably so. She thought he was gone for good and that the universe knew she deserved to be alone.

Now she understood that it was him who knew that. No greater power had dragged him forcibly from her; he did it on his own. No letter, no call, no text. She hung posters of him for months across LA. Every bar window and old pay phone that wasn't used anymore. She even stuck them on windshields in a bank parking lot. He never wanted to be found.

The realization made her stomach twist and she wondered if she was going to puke.

The Big House. That's what Percy called the farm house on their way back. It was apparently where they held meetings and kept the infirmary, where Lola had woken up. She sat on the same bed as before, still unmade and still with bloodied sheets from her back.

She also still had yet to change clothes. Will made that comment when he approached her in the infirmary.

"Didn't even make it to the cabin without getting hurt," he observes as he pulls out some bandages from the medical bag he kept somewhere in the house, "I get the feeling we're gonna be pretty close if this keeps up."

"What can I say? I'm a walking disaster," she shrugs and he grabs her hand. She resists the urge to snatch it back, knowing he was just trying to help. He hadn't made fun of her burst of tears earlier, so he couldn't be that bad.

"I got that," he says.

Will had sandy blonde hair and striking blue eyes, his skin was clearly sunkissed from working around the outdoors of the camp. He looked like every boy back home that the girls at school swooned over. Like he should be carrying a guitar case and a skateboard around the Huntgington Beach pier with sunglasses and swimtrunks on. But he also looked...nicer than those guys. He had a smile on when he walked in, even though she was a jerk to him not even an hour ago. A smile that warmed the room like sunlight.

Her silence while he looks over his finger makes him glance up at her, "Percy says you punched Aiden pretty hard. Dislocated his jaw."

She scoffs, trying to swallow whatever emotion was creeping into her throat. Her eyes train on the ceiling while she collects herself, "I was trying to break it."

He shrugs, "a little lower next time, then. I get wanting to punch a son of Hades. They have that affect on people."

"Son of Hades?" she questions and looks away from the wooden roof above them. He nods his head as if that wasn't a big bomb to drop.

"I have to reset these two fingers," he tells her and taps her middle and ring finger, "it's gonna hurt like a bitch, I won't lie."

She didn't bother saying that she knew from experience. But when he pressed onto the broken bones and she barely flinched, he probably got the idea that this wasn't her first bloody knuckle fight. She knew it should probably make her at least wince, but the sting didn't hurt as bad as it use to. It felt like popping a stiff joint, almost.

Will darts using some cotton balls and rubbing alcohol to start treating the busted skin from impact, "his brother and him are pretty similar. What did he say that deserved this hard of a right hook?"

She rolls her eyes, "it's not what he said it's what he did. Or didn't do, I guess."

He nods as if that made perfect sense to him, "it's complicated, then," he says, "a lot of things for us demigods are pretty complicated."

Demigod. That still didn't sit right with her. She never felt very godly. Especially now, with bloody knuckles in a camp full of strangers with a boy who says he's her brother. Still, she would rather be here in this mass hallucination than in LA again.

"Demigod," she sighs, her fingers twitching as a sting shoots up her arm from the rubbing alcohol, "you're some kind of doctor here, right? At least, you've patched me up more than the school nurse at this point."

He snorts and dabs up the last of the flowing blood from her hand, "well Apollo is my dad. God of healing. So i know more than the average mortal with no medical training."

"I'm not going crazy, am I?" She asks, "this isn't all some big hallucniation off a bad party drug? Cause I don't think I could imagine something this elaborate on my own."

"Do you want it to be a hallucination?" he asks her as if that held all the answers to her questions. He was beginning to wrap her hand in the clean white bandages from his bag. She instinctively flexed her hand to yank it away when he lifted it closer to him. When she does, he raises an eyebrow at her as if to ask 'really?'

"Sorry," she mutters, "instinct."

Did she want this all to be fake? A camp with a cabin for her to sleep in, food to eat, far away from her nightmares. No more park benches for beds and dumpster scraps for breakfast and dinner. No more teachers hounding her for abscneses. No Hector. No Sofia. She didn't want that to be fake. But it felt too good to be true.

She guessed her real question was; how has all of this been a plane ride away? This was some elaborate prank, or she was really wandering the halls a mental institute. Nothing good happened to her, so something this good was out of the question.

"All patched up," Will says as her mind almost got out of her reach, "but I have a square of ambrosia you should eat just to speed it up. I get the feeling you'll be punching something else real soon."

He was fishing around in his bag until he came up with a plastic baggie that held what looked like a lemon square. He tossed it at her and she caught it with her good hand while he started packing his things up.

"A lemon square?"

"Ambrosia. Food of the gods?"

"Oh, duh. How silly of me."

He chuckles and stands up from the chair he had taken up residence in, "it speeds up the healing process for us," he tells her, "but if you eat too much of it, it burns you up from the inside. So just the one square."

He was already halfway out of the doorway when he told her that tidbit, "jesus christ," she mutters and looks at the radioactive lemon square.

"Not exactly," that voice makes her want to puke all over again. It sent shivers down the spine. The voice of a dead man. AIden was standing in the doorway, an icepack pressed to his bruising jaw.

She clenched her fists when they made eye contact, ignoring her knuckles throb in protest as they tried to heal. Then she looks down at the baggie that was given to her, the tiny square feeling a lot heavier now that she knew she could die if she ate too much.

The silence was so heavy she could choke on it. It made his approaching footsteps so much louder than they actually were. The other end of the infirmary bed dipped down, but she didn't feel like telling him to leace her alone. He never listened, anyway.

After another moment of heavy silence, she sees his icepack being held out to her from the corner of her eye. It was one of the fancy fabric ones with a screw on camp. It had tiny yellow butterflies on it. He was offering it out to her.

"Get the hell away from me, Aiden," she sighs in exhaustion, running her hands over her face, "just fucking go."

He doesn't say anything. But he also doesn't move from beside her. She didn't have the heart to look up at him, either. That would break the dams.

The smell of camels and oranges washes over her. He always had an orange for breakfast. Every day. Sometimes, he would split it with her at the bus stop. If she stayed over at his house, he would give her her own as they left for school. Her heart hammered at the memory and her throat started to try and suffocate her.

She leans forward onto her knees, hands scraping over her scalp as emotions tried to overtake her body. She hated feeling so small and upset, over anything no matter how justified it was. So, she always covered it with anger. So much anger that it came out in vandalism and assault on those who pushed her. But this was anger and loneliness and betrayal and abandonment.

Anger at her father for leading her here and for not doing it sooner, anger at Aiden for leaving her behind with her nightmares, anger at herself for being angry at all.

The ground under her feet felt like it was shaking. The air felt like it was trembling with every breath she took. She couldn't breath, did her rib rebreak? Was she dying?

"Lola," Aiden finally speaks up to her and his voice makes it past the loud ringing that was overtaking her hearing. She wanted it to be louder to drown him out. But the smell of oranges only made him seem louder, "Lola calm down, okay?"

"Leave me alone, Aiden!" She snaps with the only deep breath she could get in.

She can hear the clattering of metal and wood hitting each other and can hear the sound of hooves against the floor, stomping around like they had no idea where to go. She clasped her hands against her ears, trying to focus on the ringing instead but his voice was so loud it was like a beacon.

"Take deep breaths," he's trying to tell her. She feels his palm resting on her upper arm, covering her hummingbird tattoo.

"Get the fuck away from me!"

The can hear the sound of the wooden front door bursting open and people stumbling inside, "what's going on?!"

Why is it so loud? The earth itself was screaming at her like the monster from the bakery. She pushes her hands down harder, her knuckles screeching as she does but the pain distracting her from the oranges in the room.

"Go away!" She shouts at Aiden.

She can't see it, her eyes are trained on the floor. But Percy had found his way inside, the blonde girl stumbling behind him like she was on a ship in a storm. Percy spots Aiden sitting on the bed trying to talk her down, trying to stop that quivering of the earth that would bring down the camp if it got stronger.

"Get away from her!" he shouts at Aiden. He walked smoother than anyone else would've in an earthquake, grabbing Aiden's shoulder and pulling him off the bed, "get the hell out of here! What did you do?!"

"I didn't do anything! It's her! She needs to calm down!" Aiden was looking desperately at Lola, who was shaking as badly as the ground under them as she pressed down on her ears like sirens were wailing.

Percy shoves him in the direction of the door, "no, you need to leave! You're the one making her do this!"

"Okay! Okay! I'm going!" He looks back at Lola over her blood brothers shoulder, "Lola, I'm leaving!"

The smell of oranges followed his shaky walk onto the porch. The blonde girl was gripping the stair railing, watching the commotion. But once that scent was gone, once his voice was quiet, Lola was able to force herself to focus on her own heartbeat. The only constant sound she had ever had. She had to calm down. She didn't want all these emotions to bubble over.

Her breathing was ragged but even after a few forced deep breaths. The ringing followed, quieting down until it sounded like it was across the camp.

The ground started to settle, the sound of clattering metal and wood falling silent. She refused to let tears fall, but her eyes were glossy when she looked up to see who was in the room with her. Percy was gripping the doorway, the blonde girl behind him, both staring at her like she had sprouted another head.

She sniffles, "What are you guys looking at?"

Lola pushed herself up, not wanting them to look at her like she was a freak anymore. Shoving past them, she goes out of the front door.

Chiron had the bike brought up before they got back here. At this rate, she wasn't worried about her bag. She could get new things somewhere far away from here. So she stomped towards the bike that was resting against a tree on its stand, trying to calm down what was left of her panic attack.

She didn't need them to tell her what had just happened. The earth felt like it was screaming because it was, just at her specifically. Poseidon was the god of earthquakes, and if he was supposedly her father, she had a big guess on what she just did. It was her at the bakery, and it was her now. It would be a cool power to suddenly have if she knew how to control it, and she clearly didn't.

"Lola!" Percy is heard scampering behind her as she goes for the bike key that was dangling over the handle, "hold on! You have no idea what kind of signal that just sent to every monster in New York. If you go past that gate, they'll be on you too fast for you fight off."

She scoffs and throws her leg over the bike, "I'll take my chances."

She would rather die out there than live another second with someone who left her so easily. At least, that's what she thinks. Dying didn't scare her, it was what would kill her that made her uneasy about reaching the key for the ignition.

Hell, she welcomed death. But death on her terms, by car crash or a back alley fight she picks. But not by flying monkey or snake lady.

Percy is standing by her bike as she inserts the key, "you know, I was here for 2 days when I blew up the camp bathrooms and showers," he tells her, trying to stop her from turning the bike on. She's still trembling, but he doesn't want to push the wrong buttons by mentioning Aiden, who was just down the path and watching them from a distance, "I soaked the entire Ares cabin and got nicknamed King of the Toilets for a month. Clarisse still calls me it to mess with me."

She looks at him in confusion, "what?"

He sighs, pulling a pen from his pocket and twisting it in his grip like it was a fidget toy. His black hair almost had a blue tint in direct sunlight and he was clearly having trouble trying to convince her not to leave.

"I'm saying I didn't have control over my powers when I got here either," he says, "none of us did. So you don't have to be embarrassed about--"

"Embarrassed?" She scoffs out in disbelief, "that's what you think this is about?"

He looks up at her, his spinning pen stopping between his fingers at her statement, "I mean I was pretty embarrassed when I was covered in toilet water. So I figured--"

She jerks the key out of the bike ignition. She clearly wouldn't be leaving. Not only was he right about the monsters, but this was also her best shot at surviving on her own. She spins the key on her shaking fingers.

"I don't give a damn what these people think about me," she says honestly in a voice trembling in what Percy thought was anger, "I don't give a damn what you think about me."

"Then what are you on the bike for?" he asks, glancing back at the big house when he felt eyes on them.

Aiden was still staring from down the path. Chiron and Annabeth were now peering out the door like curious neighbors watching a family squabble, not bothering to look away when he saw them. He starts twirling his pen again, ignoring their eyes.

"I have more people here telling me things about me than I've ever had before," she says, crossing her arms over her chest. Her fingers trace a particular tattoo of a bandaid on her forearm, "I'm not gonna be surrounded by people who think they know more about me than I do."

Percy understood that. At least, his responding tone made it sound like he did, "no one here knows anything about you other than the fact that you can total a building in 50 seconds. If you want it to stay like that, then it will. We're not going to force you to spill your life story."

By life story, he obviously meant why Aiden sent her into a panic attack just by being in the same room as her.

"And if you want Aiden to stay at least 300 feet away from you, then we'll keep him 300 feet away. But if you leave right now, you're as good as dead."

She sighs. It was a tempting reason to drive off into the sunset and into the arms of that snake lady. But she wasn't exactly actively seeking out death. At least not while she was sober.

"And as you're newly found half-brother, I would appreciate it if you lived a little longer than 2 hours."


	6. Smoke or Two

Cabin three sat at the edge of the U shape formation of cabins. Lola had only been a few feet away from it when she dislocated Aiden's jaw.

It was made of gray stone and was embedded with seashells and colorful coral, a carved seashell over the front door. It looked like someone had made a cabin out of pieces of the ocean floor. Now, however, it had the added decoration of the motorcycle leaning against one side. It was a backup plan in case Lola decided to have another meltdown.

Bunk beds lined one wall, but only one looked used, its blue sheets were thrown off, and a pair of slippers by the side. What looked like textbooks were on the side table, along with a few empty bottles of water. Odd-looking bronze seahorses danged from the ceiling, and a gray stone fountain was in the center of the large room. That caught her attention the most. It had a stonefish poking its head from the water inside, spitting a stream out and towards the other side. Gold coins filled the bottom.

"For Iris messages," Percy says when he notices her pick a few up to look closer, "it's really all they can be used for. I tried to use them at Target once."

Lola looks up as she lets the coins fall back into the water, "Iris message?" she asks.

She found Percy was the most willing to answer her questions. Chiron danced around them, and Mr. D, whose name she learned after almost bringing the camp down, didn't seem to want to acknowledge her presence at all.

While Percy led her towards the cabin for the second time, this time with her stolen motorcycle in tow, he explained any questions she had as best he could. But she got the feeling there was a lot he didn't understand either.

"It's kind of like a facetime call," he tells her while tossing his blue hoodie onto his bed, "but you throw one of those coins through a rainbow instead of using an iPhone."

She let that sink in while she looked around for her bag that was supposedly in here somewhere. She found it on the bottom bunk that was beside Percy's, resting next to a pile of folded clothes. It looked like new jeans and the orange shirt everyone was wearing.

Lola snatches her bag, letting herself sit on the bed that had been picked for her. Percy was already laying face down on his pillow, so silent she thought he could've fallen asleep. At least until he turned his head and looked at her examining the shirt laid out for her.

"The clothes are my girlfriends," he says and rolls onto his back, "just until you get your own. Probably tomorrow."

Oh god (or gods, she guessed). Tomorrow. A whole day of new information and confusion. The idea made her feel like her hair was falling out. She was honestly surprised that it wasn't already.

The orange shirt gets tossed back to the blue comforter she was given, and she flips open her bag. Everything was still intact. It was still a mystery, at least to her, what she crashed into going 80 miles an hour. But she didn't feel like asking any more questions at the moment.

Tucked on the top was her jean jacket. It was bloodied and torn, more than before the crash, but she pulled it on anyway. The goosebumps on her arms left the second she was covered from the outside world again. She hated being exposed to people she didn't know, even if he was her half-brother. She flinched when she pulled it down her arms, her ribs and hand protesting at the same time.

"Did you eat the Ambrosia that Will gave you?" Percy asks after he realizes she wouldn't be responding to his earlier statement, "it helps with pain. A lot."

She hadn't thought about the lemon square in a while. It had been tucked away with the rest of the information she had to sort through. But upon remembering, she reaches for her front pants pocket. It was un-squished, amazingly, and still whole when it saw light again.

"A lemon square," she says and looks at Percy with a raised eyebrow, "helps with pain? Like chocolate with dementors?"

He snorts and shrugs against the messy bed he had, "sure if you wanna think about it like that."

Lola pulls the square from the baggie, expecting the first bite to be tangy at least. But it was...plain. No taste at all. It was just a chewy texture in her mouth. She looks down at it in confusion, examining it like it was poisoned and she could see it if she tried. Her chewing was hesitant. What a horrible dessert.

"What's it taste like?" Percy asks, watching her expression morph as she kept eating it, "it's different for everyone."

She swallows the bite and looks at him oddly, head slightly tilted like a confused kitten, "like...sand," she says honestly and takes another chewy bite. It was still warm, "like warm sand."

He lifts his head from the pillow, looking at her like she was joking, "warm sand?" he chuckles.

She shrugs and swallows the second bite, "yeah. Warm sand, I guess, if you can call it that. It's bread, what did you expect me to say?"

The rest of the bread was left on top of the baggie it came in, she didn't want to finish it. That's when Percy seems to realize she was telling the truth. She didn't try to eat it all in one bite. That covered his face in shock.

"You really taste nothing?" he asks as she doesn't give it another look, "not...pancakes?"

"I've never had pancakes," she tells him while starting to rummage through her bag again, "why? A new recipe or something? Whoever made it needs to work on that," her hand emerges from the bag with her pack of cigarettes grasped.

Percy drops his head back to his pillow and suddenly looks really...sad when Lola looks back up. Why did it bother him that she didn't like how it tasted? It's a bread square, it's not supposed to be amazing. She shakes her head and stands from the bed. Something told her that her dad, apparently a god, wouldn't approve of her smoking inside.

"You can have the rest. I don't like it," she says as she walks towards the wooden door that had coral decorating the outside.

She drops the keys on the table beside her bottom bunk, figuring that would let Percy know she wasn't about to make another break for it. Then she heads outside to the sunny camp that she was supposed to call home now.

Kids were still wandering around, some now giving her curious looks as she stood against the front of the cabin, a lighter in one hand and an unlit cigarette in the other. It wasn't quiet, and she appreciated that detail. Silence right now would let her think too much about what a day she had. And it wasn't even over, yet.

In a few hours, she learned who her father was, that he was a Greek god, that she had an older half-brother, and that her best friend had faked his death three years ago to abandon her. Just like everyone did. And that was just the tip of the iceberg. It was all she could let her mind think about in front of such a crowd of people.

She lights the end of the tobacco stick and takes in a deep huff, trying to burn her lungs to see if she was awake or still dreaming. She wasn't sure if she was upset to realize it wasn't a dream.

Slowly, Lola lets her body sink to sit on the grass below her, her head tucked between her knees as she exhales the smoke. She welcomed the burn she felt as it left and more entered. The world felt numb, and she wanted it to stay that way for a while.

"Chiron doesn't like smoking on camp grounds," she hears someone say, interrupting her moment of peace that she would probably never get back in such a chatty place. She didn't want to look up at first, hoping they would just go away, "he says half-bloods die quick enough without poisoning themselves."

Lola sighs and finally lifts her head, "well Chiron is going to have to get over himself," she says.

It was the blonde girl that she had seen twice now. Once before she passed out by the fireplace, and again when she was having a breakdown in the infirmary and almost totaled the camp. Now, she had a name. Annabeth. Percy's girlfriend. Daughter of Athena. One of the many questions she had asked him on their way to the cabin.

Annabeth gives her a small, what was meant to be assuring, "Percy said you've had a rough day. I'm Annabeth."

Lola sighs and inhales another gasp of smoke before replying, "Lola," she says and exhales, "but I guess everyone here knows that already."

Annabeth stops in front of the cabin door, clearly here for Percy and not introductions to the new cabin 3 bunkmate. And apparently, the only other bunkmate, "you did come crashing through the window of our counselor meeting with a trident above your head. And then caused a 3.0 earthquake in the camp when you woke up. Made a bit of an impression.

Lola snorts, nodding in agreement, "yeah I guess it would. Sorry, about the earthquake thing, I guess. Not very polite," she was being entirely sarcastic and her tone made it clear. But Annabeth gave her another smile and pushed open the cabin door to meet her boyfriend inside.

The burning in her lungs was probably the most vivid and comforting thing she had felt since waking up. The only emotion that stuck out was the anger that seeing Aiden brought her, and that hadn't ended well for the surrounding area.

Beyond the closed door, she can hear the muffled voices of Percy and Annabeth. Not what they were saying, just that they were talking. Her brother and his girlfriend. She lets out a quiet laugh as the sentence runs across her head.

Sofia never had any other kids, even with Hector. She said she didn't want any; not even the one she already had.

When Lola was forced to talk to a school counselor once a week her freshman year, Mrs. Ramsey had told her that it was all in her head. Her mother loved her very much, but there was no 'right' way to parent so she was trying to figure out. But Sofia, Mrs. Ramsy hated that she called her that instead of 'mom,' wasn't trying to figure out parenthood. She didn't consider herself a parent, just an incubator.

The story behind why Lola was even born was even more pathetic than her actual life. Her grandparents were very Christian, a funny fact now that she knew the truth, and were disgusted with the fact that their 16-year-old daughter had gotten pregnant by a one night stand. However, they were even more disgusted by the idea of abortions. They refused to sign on off on her getting one, but also refused to let her live under their roof. And adoption? No. They wanted her to suffer the consequences of her actions.

Sofia dropped out of school, quit her surfing competitions, and got a job as a waitress to pay for their tiny one bedroom apartment. She never spoke to her parents once Lola was born, but she did bring up, very often, how much she hated them for making her go through with such a horrible punishment.

Lola was named after her grandmother, actually. Charlotte, but she hated being called that. Sofia said she named her that because she hated her mother, and she hated her child just as much. So they may as well have the same name.

But that cruel woman, Sofia Park, had attracted the attention of the God of the Sea himself. Poseidon. A mythical being with powers unimaginable to mortals. And he chose her?

Before, Lola had hoped that her dad had no idea she existed. Maybe Sofia kept it a secret and that's why he never came to rescue her. But he's an all-knowing being. An immortal who can see anything he wants to. He knew about her, hell he claimed her with the trident above her head.

Poseidon knew what happened to her in that house, he knew what Sofia and Hector both did to her. He just didn't care. No one did. She hated him for that. She hated her father more than Sofia

Lola blows out the last puff of smoke she could get from the cigarette, the burning end was starting to singe her finger tips. She drags the burning end across the seashells decor of the outside of her dad's cabin, using the ashes to write the letter 'L' across the stone.

"Fuck you, dad," she leans her head back against the cabin to look at the sky.

The sun was starting to go down, violet fading into orange as she watched the daylight drift away. The ending of one day was just the start of another, and she wanted to pause the world so she could take a minute for herself.

But she learned when Aiden went missing that the world stops for no one. Everything continues even if you don't. As if to prove her point, the cabin door swings open and two orange shirts step out. Percy and Annabeth stepped out holding hands. They didn't seem shocked to find her in the same spot, staring at nothing but a moving cloud above her.

"It's dinner," Annabeth tells her, "barbeque tonight. Are you coming?"

There was no moment of debate, Lola shook her head immediately, "I'm good here," she says and pulls another cigarette from her pack.

Percy frowned as she lit what he assumed was her second one, glancing at the butt of the first that was on the grass next to her, "I can bring you back something," he offers, "if you just need some time to yourself."

With another head shake, she flicks her lighter at the end of the cigarette, "not hungry," she says, "I'm just gonna..."

There was no need to finish her sentence. She didn't really know what she was going to do, but being surrounded by people certainly wasn't where she needed to be. And Aiden would probably be there, too. One look at him and she would be bubbling in rage all over again.

"Yeah, I get it," Percy says, "I'll be back after the campfire. You can come join us if you want to."

He and Annabeth walked away, hand-in-hand, and left Lola alone to her thoughts. They had no idea how dangerous that was for everyone involved.


	7. Family Trip to the Armory

She ended up at the dining pavilion the next morning anyway, even though she still hated the idea of being surrounded by other people.

It was packed, plates lining every table and all those tables almost packed. Apparently, every cabin ate together, each table belonging to one cabin. Hermes table, though, had two. There were too many kids to fit at one. The Zeus table remained empty, as well as Hera's and Artemis'. Hades' table had a single person; Aiden. And the Poseidon table had two; Percy and Lola.

Lola didn't have a plate of food like Percy did. And his was piled high and he was eating every bite. She just wasn't hungry. After years of barely having enough food to survive, she didn't exactly know what to do with a buffet.

"Not gonna eat?" Percy asks past a mouth full of oatmeal with strawberries, "you didn't have dinner last night either."

Or lunch. Or breakfast. She hadn't eaten a bite in two days, but the thought of food made her sick right now. She also didn't want to have to walk past Aiden to get to the line.

"Not hungry," she says simply, arms crossing on top of the table and covering her arms, "tired."

Percy takes another huge bite of oatmeal, his chewing probably the loudest thing in the world. But Lola had no energy to tell him to shut up, every muscle in her body aching in protest of her movements. She didn't even have the heart to yell at everyone who walked by, ogling her like she was a new zoo animal.

"Why were you on the floor, this morning?" Percy asks as she rests her had on her arms, "there are 5 other beds and you were sleeping on the floor."

She sighs, "why'd you kick me in the ribs, bigfoot?"

"Because you weren't supposed to be on the floor. I kinda thought you..." he hesitated like he didn't want to give her any ideas so early in the morning.

Lola rolled her head to look at him, "made a break for it?" she asks.

Percy shrugs and takes another bite.

"That bike isn't quiet," she tells him, "the whole camp would've heard me."

Silence on the table again. The actual dining pavilion wasn't quiet at all. It was hard to get a coherent thought with all the laughing and talking and even shouting. Too much shouting for 8 am. Lola knew that the whispers she didn't hear were probably about her. The girl who crashed a bike through the window and shook the camp a whole mile to the right.

"Pizza," Percy says unexpectedly, making her look back at him. He was eating oatmeal, not pizza. But he was looking down at her forearm, one tattoo among the many that scattered her skin. The one he seemed to be looking at was her pizza slice tattoo, "I take it you like Pizza?"

She doesn't give a response. At least not immediately. She didn't know if she should. People always seemed to leave when they knew too much about her. And if he was her brother, her biological brother, would he leave too if he got to know too much about her? When he knew how much of a mess she was, would he be disappointed and want nothing to do with her? Aiden did, and she had considered him her brother for years before he abandoned her.

At the thought of the betrayal, she glanced over at the Hades table. Aiden was sitting by himself, stirring a bowl of what she guessed was oatmeal, glaring at it like it just insulted his mother. He hated oatmeal, why did he grab that of everything at the buffet?

"Come on," Percy says, "we're siblings and all I know about you is that you're from Los Angeles and you have a killer right hook."

"What happened to not telling my life story?" she pushes, referring to what he had said to convince her to stay the day before.

Her aggressive tone didn't deter him in the slightest. In fact, he seemed to find it funny and continued to pester her while eating, "your life story is in a pizza slice tattoo?" his joke got nothing but a glare from her, "well, we have all day together so I can get something out of you before free-time."

She had never dreaded a day more than she did this one. Percy was clearly stubborn. Even when the other tables started to disperse for their activities, he was still blabbering on and trying to get a reaction from her.

"I picked the schedule for this week," he's telling her when Annabeth approaches their table, "it's always been me so I never really care what activities I had to do. We can decide together on Friday so you can try everything and see what you like. Oh, hey Wise Girl."

Annabeth was standing by the table end, smirking as she watched the very one-sided conversation be carried as if it was between a group, "are you guys ready? Lola, you didn't eat?"

She huffs, "I'm not hungry," she repeats for what felt like the 100th time.

Annabeth proceeded to scold her, "you should have something before we go to the armory. Lunch isn't until noon."

Lola lifted her head, ready to rip this girl a new one. She didn't care if she was dating her half-brother. She wasn't obligated to like either of them and pushing her to do something she didn't want to do was putting her in the red. When she turned, something thumped onto the wooden table from behind Annabeth.

An orange rolls across the white table cloth and Lola catches it before it falls. Annabeth and Percy spin to see who it was, but Lola already knew.

Aiden stood a few feet away, a peeled orange in his hand and now an unpeeled one in hers. The fruit felt like it burned in her hands. Her former best friend looked like a kicked puppy when she dropped it like it was on fire and let it fall to the ground.

Percy and Annabeth looked between the two, like a single spark would light the air on fire and both of them were holding a match. Lola's daring eyes told Aiden not to step closer. He hesitates to follow the silent order, but he did turn and follow the crowd off in another direction.

"Oooookay," Percy says, "um...we should go to the armory before Monster Assault Techniques. To get you a weapon."

"Yeah," says Annabeth, clearly trying to get away from the killer atmosphere that had formed, "I'll go with you guys. I have to get my a practice sword for today, anyway."

"Great," Percy says as he links hands with her and stands up from the table, "family trip. Come on, L. It's easy to get lost. I still can't find the bathrooms at night."

His new nickname for her made her skin crawl. Lola was a nickname, what's the point of shortening it anymore? Still, she was tired, and pulled herself up to walk behind them like a sluggish third wheel that could fall off at any time.

It was another warm and sunny day. Lola almost wished she left her jacket in the cabin. Even when there should be snow on the ground, this camp was still stuck in July with full strawberry plants and heatwaves. It felt like LA. Whether or not that was a good thing was still up in the air.

Percy and Annabeth were still a few steps ahead. Lola's sore ribs were dragging her behind. But she noticed Percy's looks over his shoulder to make sure she hadn't run away. They were meant to be discreet, but he failed miserably at it. Even Annabeth shook her head when he looked back for the third time to see if she was bolting for her bike when they passed the cabins. It felt like having an ankle monitor on.

The armory was just behind the cabin that Percy had pointed out as Athena's the previous day. It was a plain gray building, a nice change compared to the other extravagant cabins, with white curtains covering the windows in the front. On the door was a carved owl into the wood. But they walked around it.

Behind that building was what looked like a big metal shed. No windows, and only one door. Like a big gardening toolshed. People were walking in and out like it was a casual hangout spot, and when the door swung open Lola could see that the back wall was lined with what she swears were sword. They probably were.

This is a camp of demigods. The world is full of monster that can be killed by two kinds of metal in the entire world. It made sense to have a gardening shed full of swords.

But when she walked in behind Percy and Annabeth, there wasn't just swords (though they took up the majority of space). Barrels were full of spears that looked like they were made of silver and gold, wooden clubs that looked like cut tree branches, and...was that a shot gun on the wall? That couldn't be safe. Did this camp go through state safety checks?

"There's a lot to choose from," Percy says, "Swords are the most popular because they're pretty useful, but you can pick whatever you like most."

Shields with the symbols of the different gods lined the walls. She saw one with a trident on the front and had half a mind to kick it and see if it broke. She restrained herself. If her dad could watch her go through years of torture, nothing would stop him from smiting her down with some kind of magic hurricane.

The spears looked way too big for her 5'5" frame. Some were a foot taller than her. And the swords looked way too heavy for her to lug around constantly. The assortment of daggers on the wall all looked the same. She didn't exactly want to pick one up and shove it in a belt loop. She wanted to pick up the shotgun out of curosity, but with her luck recently she would shoot her foot off. Will could only fix so much and she was guessing reattached limbs was a bit out of his skill range.

The clubs looked too much like something a caveman would drag behind him. However, amongst the boxes of those she spotted something special.

It was a baseball bat, which is what caught her attention initially. But when she grabbed the handle and lugged it out of the other tree clubs, she saw that the fop was reinforced with a steel plate all the way around. And sharp, curved black spikes were protruding from every angle. It was weighted in the handle to even it out.

"Sick," she mutters and spins it in the air to see how balanced it was.

"The spiked bat. Ares kids usually like the blunt force weapons," Annabeth critiques like a school teacher.

Percy goes for a more supportive approach, "I think it fits you pretty good."

"Well," Annabeth says, "it fits her 'well', seaweed brain."

Lola rolls her eyes at their mindless flirting, deciding she could give this thing a try. It would be a nice way to blow off some steam. As she's turning it around one last time in her hand, she hears footsteps entering the shed. She turns out of curiosity, half expecting Aiden to be walking in.

It was a girl, probably Percy's age, wearing a red hoodie over her camp shirt and a pair of worn out skinny jeans. Her hair was a darkbrown when Lola caught a glimpse of it in the sunlight, but it looked black in the shed where there was no light but from the door. She was carrying a shield on her back, but no weapon. Very odd for someone in this place. But that must be why she's here.

"Hey, Becca," Annabeth greets her, "Hephestus cabin still not done with your sword?"

The girl walked by Lola as if she wasn't there, and from behind Lola could see that her shield was one from the wall. It had a picture of a helmet engrave on it. She recognized it as the symbol on the Ares cabin.

"It's been a week," the girl's deep and smooth voice dripped annoyance, "but no. The whole cabin was freaking out over some motorcycle that came in all dented up."

Lola smirks and bites her lip to stop from chuckling. That would be her fault. Though she couldn't explain why a whole cabin liked that bike. It didn't seem like anything special. Over Becca's shoulder, Percy gives her a smirk that conveyed exactly what she had been thinking.

The daughter of Ares, at least Lola assumed that's why she had that specific shield, grabbed a sword from the backwall that looked like it had dried blood on the hilt.

"I have to use a practice until they're done fangirling," Becca swings the sword as if testing its balance.

"Me too," Annabeth tells her, reaching for a sword of her own, "hopefully they're done by capture the flag this week."

"I'll burn their cabin down myself if its not," Becca sighs and turns around, "see you later, Annabeth. I'm late for Sword and Shileld. Clarisse is gonna kill me."

On her way out, she seemed to notice that Lola was also in the cabin, but she didn't seem too concerned with it. She was tall, maybe 5'9" or around that area, and lean. With her sleeve pulled up, Lola could tell she had muscle despite looking like she couldn't lift more than a stray puppy off the road. But her expression said she was angry and waiting for an excuse to get into a fight.

She's hot.

Becca looks at the bat in Lola's hand and without missing a beat says, "nice choice," and goes jogging from the shed.

She's really hot.

Lola looks at Annabeth and Percy and points the bat in the direction Becca had ran, "who was that?"

Annabeth was weighing her sword in her hands and Percy was picking at his teeth like he had oatmeal stuck in them from breakfast. He's hardly paying attention to either of them, so Annabeth answers her question.

"Becca Stone," she says casually, "daughter of Ares and probably the nicest of his kids you'll meet."

Lola glances out the door to see if anyone was nearby before scoffing, "holy shit she's hot."

Whatever Percy had been picking from his teeth shot to the back of his throat and he coughs. When he catches his breath, he looks at Lola in shock. Annabeth is laughing at his reaction and shrugs her shoulders.

"She's also a bitch to everyone she meets," Annabeth says with an amused grin as Percy coughs again.

"Even better."


	8. "Pushing It" Questions

ONE WEEK LATER

Lola still slept on the floor beside the bed rather than on it. However, she had gotten comfortable enough to at least drag a pillow down with her. And Percy had grown used to stepping out on the other side of the bed in the mornings so he didn't kick her head.

Today, like every day for the past 8 days, she heard his feet thump against the wooden cabin floor. It shook her awake after the two hours of sleep she had managed to get, and then he noisily yawned to combat the morning silence.

"Shut up," she mutters to him, "you yawn like a rooster."

"Good morning to you too, sunshine," he grunts groggily and stands up from the bed. Lola cracks her eyes open to watch his feet pad around to the end of his bunk to grab clothes for the morning. She doesn't move, trying to trick her body that she hadn't woken up yet. But the slamming of his chest lid had officially woken her.

She lifts herself with her arms until she's sitting up, rubbing her eyes to get rid of the gunk that had grown overnight. The sun was barely peaking in through the windows. She had realized after a few days that the curtains pulled themselves back every morning when they felt the sun hit them. It was by far her least favorite magical thing about this camp.

"Damn. Demigods don't sleep in?" She asks as if she ever actually slept more than 4 hours at the most.

Percy grunts as if this bothered him too, "I've tried, Chiron doesn't allow it."

Lola lays back down on the floor that had grown warm under her over the night. Pulling her blue comforter further off of her bed, she closes her eyes and smothers her face into the pillow. The smell of sea salt filled her nose from it.

She hears Percy stand up from his chest and as he moves to walk by her, his foot smacks against hers, "if I have to get up, you have to get up."

"Says who?" She mutters and jerks her foot away from him and under the blanket.

"Says the senior counselor."

Lifting her head, she glares daggers at his sleepy yet mocking smirk, "this isn't a dictatorship," she seethes, "let me sleep," her head goes under the pillow this time.

Another sharp kick to her shin and she throws herself back into a sitting position, "fine, Stalin! You win!"

His laugh made her huff while crawling up from the ground. She throws her comforter and pillow back onto the bed that they belonged to before grumpily grabbing a new set of clothes from her trunk. She had a few of her own orange camp shirts, now, as well as a few pairs of jeans that Annabeth said her siblings outgrew over time.

Lola usually hated taking charity from anyone. But the only pair she had shown up with her covered in blood and dirt and were about 5 years old. So she took against everything she had ever learned and tossed them into her trunk.

When she stood back up, Percy was already disappearing into the bathroom. Another annoyed huff passes through her nose. He forces her awake and then takes the bathroom first? She should put saytr poop in his pillow. She sits on the bed to try and wake up her mind before taking on the day.

It had been a week since Lola woke in the infirmary. A very long week but...she didn't hate it like she thought she would. The camp felt more like home than LA ever had, even if Aiden still wouldn't get off her ass every day. Even he was starting to make her feel more at ease. She was still mad at him, still unbelievably mad, but she had made it to the point that she could walk past his table for breakfast now.

Percy had practically dragged her to dinner her first official day of camp. She wanted to throw herself in the lake and see if a daughter of Poseidon could drown. Her ass had been kicked in Monster Assault, she argued with a pegasus for the entire hour of their riding lessons about the proper way to say "peanut butter", and spent her entire free time in the infirmary with Will scolding her over busting her knuckle back open. When she sat down at the table without grabbing a plate, she thought Percy was going to grab her by the neck like a kitten.

He did drag her but by the jacket rather than the neck. He forced half the buffet onto her plate. She got the feeling he was trying to play the 'protective big brother' card, but it was honestly irritating.

For one; she didn't need a protective big brother. She was more than capable of keeping herself alive, she had been doing it since she opened her eyes 16 years ago. And for second; she wasn't used to eating so much at once. It made her nauseous when she ate more than what her homeless stomach normally got. It took him about 3 days to realize that three meals were just out of the question; he would be lucky for one and a snack.

That being said, she did find her stomach starting to grumble as she smelled the bacon coming all the way from the dining hall. She didn't like that one bit.

She was getting used to this; not going hungry every night and having a warm blanket and pillow when she slept. If this got messed up, or more specifically if she messed it up, then it was going to be hard to go back to how she was before. Going soft wasn't something she could afford the luxury of. Especially not right now, being thrown into a new world of monsters and gods.

As she sits in silence, the shower running behind the bathroom door, she debates on going today with nothing to eat. She didn't want to become so dependent on this place and the people in it.

As if sensing destructive thoughts, the shower cuts off.

Lola had showered the night before to get the sand from swim and beach time out of her hair. Miranda from cabin 4 had shoved her under an incoming wave as a joke. All she had done was cover Lola in sand and attract every fish in the ocean towards her.

Lola stands from the ground, fumbling her way towards the sink that was just outside of the bathroom. There were three sinks on a countertop made from Abalone, a cup holding two toothbrushes that coasted around from morning to morning. A long mirror stretched across the wall in front of it. She snatched the purple one, reaching for the toothpaste just as the door opened.

"And she's finally up," Percy jokes as he emerges in a new camp shirt and jeans. He was drying his hair with a towel, and Lola wondered why.

He could make water fall off of him at will. But, that would leave a puddle that he would have to clean so she assumed that was his reasoning. With a glare, Lola turns on the sink and starts brushing her teeth.

Percy snatches his blue toothbrush from the cup and grabs the toothpaste from his sister's hand. She rolls her eyes before spitting the toothpaste into the sink, the water washing it down the drain. Percy sticks his toothbrush under the faucet.

"Get your own sink, fish breath," she says lazily and leans on one hand against the counter.

He ignores her playful insult, though she'd never admitted that's what it was, and asks his daily question before brushing his own teeth, "favorite animal?"

This had become part of their early routine. Lola called it the "pushing it" question. After the first day of Percy pestering her with random and pointless questions, they came to an agreement that she would answer one. And only one question a day. He could ask anything; no matter how dumb or personal it was. She always had the option to not respond and he never pushed for an answer, but she liked how creative he got with some of them.

Still half-awake Lola responds past the toothbrush between her teeth, "Elephant."

He raises an eyebrow as he turns on another sink, dropping his hair towel onto the countertop, "not a fish?" he says in a garbled voice.

She shakes her head, "Elephant," she repeats and spits one last time, "they're cool," she tosses her toothbrush back into the cup and rinses her mouth before turning to go back to the bed.

Percy was quiet, for once, as she grabbed her clothes from the end of the cover-less bed. Underneath them, she had unknowingly covered her spiked baseball bat, a weapon she liked as much as she thought she would. She leaves it behind as she makes her way to the bathroom.

The silence is broken when the sink stops running. He did so hesitantly like he knew that he shouldn't be doing what he was doing. He asked carefully, like defusing a bomb.

"What's your mom's name?"

The sudden invasion of her mind made her footing hesitate. Amazingly, she hadn't thought about Sofia in maybe 12 hours. It was a blessing that probably would have carried on if he hadn't made her sneering face flicker on her eyelids.

Her toes hit the ground and she stumbles in her step, catching herself in the next one. She glares at him through the mirror, telling him he had cut the wrong wire.

"One question. Don't push it," she growls and slams the bathroom door shut behind her.

Sword and Shield was turning into one of Lola's favorite camp activities. Even though she hated swords; she cut herself on them more than she did other people. They were always unbalanced and uncomfortable to hold. And using them and a shield at the same time was impossible, she always ended up tossing the shield away.

However, Becca Stone was the instructor. She looked as good in full armor as she did in a hoodie and jeans.

Today, she was with her sister Clarisse in front of the group that had the 10 am slot for the activity. Poseidon cabin, Apollo cabin, and the Aphrodite cabin. Although, the Aphrodite cabin was more interested in their separate conversations than how to stab someone in the chest.

Percy was also hardly paying attention, he was furiously scrubbing at the green paint that stained his hands during an arts and crafts catastrophe a few hours earlier. There were chunks of the paint in his hair as well, but Lola decided he could figure that out on his own.

"We're gonna split into teams," Becca was saying to the crowd of people watching their tactics on aiming right for the heart of a monster with a long sword, "just one-on-one today. Tomorrow we'll do groups."

Percy had finally decided to zone back in when he heard that teams would be picked. He accepted that the green paint would be there for the rest of the day and pulled out a pen from his pocket.

Lola had seen the "pen" in action before, but it still baffled her when he pulled the cap off and it transformed into a sword. He used it during every activity they had, including Capture the Flag. It was named "riptide" and belonged to a bunch of famous greek heroes in the past.

"You and me, L," he says lazily.

Other demigods were teaming up around them, scattering around the sand floor to begin clashing their swords and spears together. Lola sighs, standing up from the wooden stands they had been occupying, grabbing her spiked bat from beside her.

"Parks," a gruff and smokey sounding voice makes her look away from the, "you're with me today. Jackson goes too easy on you."

Clarisse La Rue was walking towards them like a bulldozer with a sword. She was built like a bodybuilder, with the sleeves of her orange camp shirt ripped off to allow her muscular arms to breathe. She had cropped blonde hair and a bandana around her forehead, and so far she was one of Lola's least favorite people to be around.

Percy seems shocked by her demand, looking from her to Lola as if she had spouted nonsense and wanted to make sure she heard it too. Clarisse reaches them, everyone scattering around her like she would stab them if they got too close.

"No way," Percy scoffs, "when I trained with you, you tried to kill me."

Clarisse rolls her eyes, crossing her arms so that what remained of her sleeves looked like they would bust, "well I'm the instructor, Jackson. And I'm saying you're too easy on her, so she's training with me."

Lola opened her mouth to put in her own protest before Percy cut her off, "you're not training with my sister, Clarisse. There's no argument."

The girl in question looked at him with narrowed eyes. She didn't need him fighting any battles for her. She was tempted to go with Clarisse just to spite him when yet another voice butted in on her behalf.

"She can train with me, then," and all eyes drifted to behind Clarisse.

Becca was approaching the arguing group while casually spinning the sword around her hand like it was a pencil. She looked from Percy to Clarisse and to Lola, waiting for any protest. Honestly, Lola was too shocked to form any. And it seemed the others were as well.

"No arguments? Okay, then. Follow me, Parks," Becca nods over her shoulder as she slung her sword over her shoulder with ease.

Lola smirks, looking at Percy and shrugging her shoulders as she started after her camp crush. He gave her a pleading look in return, throwing a glance at Clarisse's still confused figure. That meant he was stuck training with her, and Lola snickered before turning around.

By now, Lola had figured out that Becca was just as rough as the rest of the Ares cabin. While she lacked the muscular build and bulky figure, instead looking like a sports model from a magazine, she did have the temper. During capture the flag last week, an Apollo boy on her team had gotten an arrow just a little too close to her head, and the metal bow was bent into an actual Christmas bow.

The two girls land in the back corner of the arena, though it wasn't any more private than the front of the room. The Apollo cabin was almost as packed as the Hermes cabin, meaning there was no other free space to practice.

"You should probably get a sword at some point," says Becca when she turns and sees the spiked bat clutched in Lola's bandaged hand, "they'll be more useful in a fight. And you'll need all the help you can get."

Lola raises an eyebrow. That was the first thing she had said to her directly since the armory a week ago. And it sounded like an insult.

"Nice to meet you too," she says with an eye roll, "do you always insult people when you first meet them? Or am I just special?"

There was no verbal response. Just the barely seen glint of a sword swinging at her head. Lola ducks down, feeling the breeze over her scalp. She wasn't even sure what she dodged for a moment, just that it probably cut a few stray hairs from her head.

Since finding out she was a demigod, her fighting reflexes made a lot more sense. Dodging a sword was a lot like dodging a punch, just sharper and able to reach farther.

She stands up straight, lifting her bat with both hands to block the sword as it comes back from the other direction. She glared at Becca, who clearly didn't care if the sword had hit the top of her head.

Up close, her eyes are almond-shaped and a cold blue that could cut stone. They were probably sharper than her sword. Her dark hair had started the demonstration in a ponytail, but stray chunks were now framing her face and flying as she lifted her blade from the bat.

She wasn't much for conversation, apparently.

The sword swiped down, towards her ankles. She jumped, letting her muscles react before her mind could. Her hands bring down the bat, locking the blade on the dirt ground between the spikes. She was starting to get the hang of her reflexes, but Becca still had a lot more training over her.

She twisted her sword, forcing the bat to lift just enough for her to regain control of her weapon. She jerks it up, making the bat twist and slip from Lola's grip. It flies over her shoulder and she turns on her heel to try and catch it before it was too far to reach.

With her back turned, a sharp kick is landed on the back of her knee. It buckles under the weight, and before she can understand where the pain was coming from, the blade of the sword was pressed roughly to her throat.

Okay, maybe Percy was too easy on her. Or maybe Becca was just carrying out Clarisse's agenda to piss him off by going for her. That was also plausible.

"Alright, point proven," Lola gasps out when the blade presses a little harder to her skin.

As if waiting for her to admit defeat, Becca drops the blade and lets the airflow back to her lungs, "you're too defensive. You have to attack at some point if you want to win."

Lola has to catch her breath before she can allow herself to reply. She uses the time she has to regain her weapon to do so, turning back to face Becca with a blank face.

"Why is everything here a competition?" She asks rhetorically, "I mean for fucks sake! You guys are trying to stay alive, right? Not kill each other every Friday?"

That got the smallest of smiles out of the daughter of Ares. She looked down to try and hide it before putting back on her angry-looking resting face. Her dark hair hid her face while she gathered the "child of Ares" aura that Lola was beginning to think was required in order to be accepted by them. But, from the sight she caught of the smile, she liked it better.

"Just a question," she sighs and tightens her grip on the bat as she readies herself for whatever blow was going to come next. Her still healing knuckles protest, "come on. I'm ready to get my ass kicked."

Becca looks back up, her lips pursed. She looks over Lola and lets her sword fall to her side, "hold it like you want to use it."

Lola refrains from saying that she didn't want to use, she didn't even want to hold it. Fighting wasn't a new thing to her; she'd had her fair share of black eyes and bruised skin. But she'd always used her fists when other people were involved (and once a chair but that was a moment of rage). Actual weapons were always off-limits, and usually unavailable. So no, she didn't want to hold it like she wanted to use it.

Becca rolled her eyes at the hesitation and took two long strides in Lola's direction. She was about 80% legs, with one of her steps being the same as 2 of Lola's.

Her hand grabs Lola's elbow, lifting her arm so that her bat was level with her chest. With her other hand, she forces Lola's non-bandaged hand to grip the bat as well. As she's forcing her hands to tighten, she looks at her sternly.

"This thing is all that stands between you and a bloody and painful death," she says, "so lock your elbows and hold it like you mean it unless you're aiming for an early death."


	9. First Campfire

Lola had her head against the cool wood of the dining hall, willing herself to fall into a coma where she sat.

Percy was on his second plate of Barbeque and his forever-full goblet was full of blue diet-coke. In the week she had known him, Lola learned he had a thing for blue food. The nymphs liked to try to make every food they could blue just for him, an attempt at flirting that went over his head. Annabeth, however, grumbled about it every time he got a bowl of blue oatmeal or blue french toast.

"Are you asleep?" his loud voice shakes her from the nap she was almost in. The throbbing in her ribs numbed when she slept.

Lola lifts her head, "I almost was."

He smirked while slicing into his food like he made a joke, "you took a beating this morning."

She groans as she sits up, resting her elbows on the table by her untouched plate of food, "tell me about it. I think Will might have to reset a few ribs."

Becca had no mercy the entire hour of training, flipping Lola all over the ground and pinning her with a sword. If she hadn't had more broken bones than whole ones, it would've been hot. But the second her ribs smacked into the railing of the stands, all appeal went out the window.

"I tried to stop you," Percy says unsympathetically, "but no...you had to skip after her like a love-sick puppy."

"I will drop kick you."

His laugh said he didn't believe her threat for a second, but neither did she.

Not that Lola would ever say it out loud, but she had grown to enjoy Percy's company. And maybe even appreciate it. She easily would have lost her mind by now if she was the only child of Poseidon in camp. He had remained stable in the past week; his snores shaking the entire cabin at night, his daily question, dragging her to the dining pavilion every meal. And she pretended not to notice that he slipped a granola bar into his hoodie pocket in the mornings in case she mentioned being hungry before lunch.

He was also true to his word; no one had to know anything about her if she didn't want them to. Sure, he asked his daily question and sometimes pushed it and asked a second, but he never insisted on getting an answer. And once that question was clearly off-limits he didn't ask it again.

So no; she wouldn't drop kick him. Not only because she had grown to like him, but he could also slice her in half without blinking. He was infamous for a reason.

"Are you coming to the bonfire?" He asks as she starts to shove around the food on her plate, wondering if she had room for it, "I think Demeter cabin wanted to talk about an Alliance with us."

She shakes her head, "god no," she says and decides to try and take a bite of her Barbeque, "sing-alongs aren't my thing."

"I feel like fight club is more your thing," Percy cackles and dodges the chunk of meat that she flings off her fork at him.

As if everyone had heard the mention of the last camp activity, people start to lift themselves from their tables in groups and hoard in the direction of the bonfire. She, however, made no move to get up and follow them. Not even when Annabeth approached the table, a hand placed on Percy's shoulder as she walked up behind him.

She asks the same question that Percy did, "coming with us, this time?"

Lola shakes her head again, putting her fork down on the plate when she realizes she couldn't eat dinner tonight. The Barbeque looked good, so she was actually a little disappointed at her small stomach. But maybe tomorrow she could have some.

"I'm going to the cabin," she says, "maybe the beach. Who knows? Endless possibilities."

"No you're not," Percy says as if the decision had already been made, "you're coming with us. For the full camp experience."

Lola rolls her eyes, swinging her leg over the bench on her side of the table, "keep telling yourself that."

She didn't get very far from the table. Actually, she had barely stood up from the table when Annabeth's arm looped around her elbow, her grip gentle but firm enough that Lola knew it would take more energy to get away than she had. She looks at her in betrayal.

"It'll be fun," insists Annabeth, dragging her a few steps in the direction of the flowing crowd. Percy can be heard shoveling the last of his food into his mouth, "one bonfire won't kill you."

Lola frowns, "it will," she says and digs her converse into the stone floor of the pavilion hall, "don't make me. I don't want to."

Annabeth pulled at her arm, trying not to be rough with the bandage covered hand, "it won't, I promise," she says with an eye roll, "just for like an hour, then you can run back to your beach and be a hermit."

"I don't like being ganged up on," Lola says as she's led in the direction of the growing crowd. Percy is heard following behind them with a laugh, "this is bullying. I don't want to. I rebroke my rib, I have to go see Will."

But she was too tired and bruised to fight against Annabeth's tugging, "you're fine," the daughter of Athena says, "you'll survive for an hour."

"No, I won't," Lola groans in defeat, following her with no resistance. Just an hour. Then she could bury her feet in the sand behind the cabins until she saw the sun over the water. Then she could sleep on the ground of the cabin until Percy woke her up. She could avoid Aidan for an hour.

The air got warmer the closer they got to the fire, where people were huddling around with guitars and tambourines and flutes and other wooden instruments she couldn't identify. Once they were close enough that she couldn't run without slamming into someone, her arm was finally freed.

The fire was warm. The whole camp was warm, actually, and stuffy. She was heating up in her jacket, but she didn't want to take it off in front of all these people. They stared at her enough without knowing she was covered in tattoos.

It wasn't that she was ashamed of any of them. Each one meant something to her. There was a story behind the cactus tattoo, the band-aid, the butterfly, the hummingbird. None of it was because she saw a picture of it and decided to copy it. They each had a story, but she didn't want anyone asking about those stories. She had too much to think about without adding her past to it. That was supposed to be forgotten here.

"It's a sing-along," Annabeth is telling her as they walk towards one of the large logs laid out for seating, "but we mostly leave it to the Apollo cabin. Come on, Lola. It's a chance to talk to people and make friends."

So that was their con. They wanted her to make friends. It was a justified motive, granted. She'd been here a week and the only friends she had made were Will and Annabeth. But people just weren't her strong suit. Actually, she sucked at people. It was amazing she managed to keep Aidan around for as long as she did. But even he eventually faked his death to get away from her.

Reminded about how badly her last friendship ended, her eyes skimmed over the large crowd. He wasn't hard to spot. The only black t-shirt in a sea of orange and he was keeping to the sides.

He had grown taller since LA. And he'd gotten muscular from the training, most likely with the sword that was on his belt like an accessory. But his RBF hadn't changed in 3 years. It could've made her smile.

"Or talk to old ones," Percy adds on for good measure.

She looks away to send him a glare, "he wasn't a friend," she argues. Which was true. He had been her brother. And knowing he left her behind so easily hurt to think about still.

"Okay," Percy says, "whatever he was. You could always talk to him.."

"Is that why you dragged me out here? Therapy?" She asks, though she wasn't expecting a response from either of them, "because I'm not paying either of you."

Percy snorts, "I couldn't be paid enough to be your therapist."

Annabeth ignores their arguing. At this point it was pretty routine when they were together; someone was getting insulted if not both of them. But she knew neither of them meant it. In fact, she told Percy she liked their banter. It was nice to see him interact with a sibling close to his age (since Tyson is only 8 and hardly ever in camp). She knew how much he used to envy the other siblings around camp.

"Actually, I dragged you out here for something else, " Annabeth gently knocks her leg to hers. Lola looks over at her, ignoring the grass she had been glaring at while talking, "you could go and talk to Becca," she nods to the side.

When Lola followed her eyes, she found the Ares cabin finally joining the others from the dining hall. She was grinning, shoving around her brothers and sisters like it was a constant MMA tournament. It was so....contagious, her smile. Slightly crooked, making it look like an exaggerated smirk. But it was so genuine and happy.

Percy groans, leaning back onto the log so he can see that Lola was watching the daughter of Ares' every move as she got closer.

"Why couldn't it be someone else?" He complains, "why one of Clarisse's sisters? That's what you can do!" An epiphany dawns on him as he reaches across Annabeth's back to gently tug at the sleeve of Lola's jacket to grab her attention.

"What?" She says, not listening to him in the slightest.

He rolls his green eyes dramatically, "you can find someone else to crush on," he says and starts looking around the camp for other girls her age.

Annabeth laughs at his concentrated face, leaning against his side like it was an instinct to be so close to him.

Lola had to admit, she was a little jealous of how good their relationship was. They trusted each other completely and only had eyes for each other. Annabeth never looked at another boy for more than a few seconds if it wasn't one of her brothers. Percy was oblivious to every failed attempt of other campers flirting with him. And the confidence he always had completely melted around her and he turned into a softie with puppy eyes.

On more than one occasion, Lola found herself wondering if this is how every relationship was supposed to be. Is that the "healthy example" the counselor said she should look for at home. Gods know that if she had seen this growing up, she wouldn't have been in the only relationship she had ever been in.

"There's the Aphrodite cabin," Percy points out, reminding her what he was looking around so carefully for, "I think Valentina likes girls, you could talk to her. Or I know Penny from Apollo cabin is at least Bi. Basically, anyone that isn't from cabin 5 is alright with me."

"You're being very prejudiced," Lola chuckles, eyes fluttering back over to see if Becca was still smiling, "you know you guys don't have to sit here with me, right? I don't have to be babysat."

Annabeth and Percy try not to make it obvious as they both glance over to the sidelines. Where Aiden was still brooding in the shadows just a few feet away from her. It didn't take a genius to know why that was their big concern. Mockingly, Lola lifts a hand.

"Scouts honor I won't level the camp. I'll keep my meltdowns internal," while her tone was joking, it wasn't a joke. She wasn't ready to face him yet, and if he approached something would definitely snap.

Wanting to give her the benefit of the doubt, Percy and Annabeth stand from the log and say they won't be far. She watches them approach a familiar red-headed satyr.

She'd met Grover a few times seeing as he was her brother's best friend. Whenever the two of them were together it was like they passed a single brain cell back and forth and Annabeth was the common sense. But, that's what best friends are for. To be stupid together. She watched Percy grab one of Grover's horns in a teasing manner.

She sat back on the log that only had her on it. Every other log had a group of people on them, talking among themselves and to anyone who passed by. Not everyone was so friendly, though. Unsurprisingly, the Ares kids were enjoying wreaking havoc on anyone who walked to close.

A boy, maybe 16 of 17, was walking past them to get to a group of others waving him over. Probably his siblings. But Clarisse stuck a foot out just as he stepped, tripping him and spilling the drinks he was carrying. The cups never emptied, some kind of magic enchantment, so it didn't affect the drinks much. However, he did get a mystery liquid all over his camp shirt.

The Ares children laugh hysterically, teasing the boy as he glared at Clarisse. He said nothing to her and walked away.

Becca was among the laughter, making Lola roll her eyes. She was hot, but that's where the attraction ended. She was also a bully like the rest of her siblings, and Lola couldn't stand bullies.

"Um...hey," she hadn't noticed him approaching her. His footsteps were loft in the bustle going around the campfire. The Apollo cabin still hadn't started singing. Aiden stood in front of her, "can I sit?"

Gods, she couldn't catch a break. He had his hands shoved in his jeans pockets, trying to smile at her like he wasn't afraid she would tell him to get lost. Running a hand through her dark hair, she crosses her legs over each other in an attempt to get farther away from him.

"I'd rather you didn't," she answers, "you never could take a hint, could you?"

He chuckles, not taking a seat but not leaving his spot either, "yeah. I haven't changed much, I guess."

She hums, "that makes one of us. Leave me alone, Aiden."

He doesn't walk away. Since the ground wasn't shaking everyone around them, he didn't think she meant it. She had to make the earth tremble to get him away from her, but she didn't have the energy for any earthquakes tonight. When she gets no response, she sighs.

"Please go," she practically begs, "we'll talk eventually. But not tonight."

"I know you, Lola. You're gonna avoid this until I have to push you." Yeah. Three years ago. But she's learned that problems always catch up to you eventually. You can run away, sleep on park benches, refuse to look them in the eye, but they always come crashing into you when you least expect it. So she knew she would have to face this problem eventually if it didn't blow up in her face first.

She opens her mouth to tell him that he doesn't know her anymore. Nobody does. Not even herself.

"I'm pretty sure she said leave her alone," Aiden and Lola both looked up, expecting Annabeth to have seen them. Of course, Lola figured it wouldn't be Annabeth when she heard how deep the voice was. But who it did sound like didn't make any sense.

Becca had found her way over to them, her smile from her siblings long gone and replaced with a signature Cabin 5 scowl. She had her hands clenched into intimidating fists at her sides, a sword on her hip

"I wouldn't have guessed you two were friends," Aiden says and glances between them both, "from the way she tossed you around during training."

Lola raises an eyebrow, "how would you know that?"

She got her answer when he pursed his lips and didn't respond. Her mouth falls open in shock, realizing he had been stalking her around camp. Unsure if she should be angry or shocked, she could only stare at him.

"You were stalking me?!" is all she can think to say, not sure how to approach the problem. However, she did figure out how to feel about it. Her default emotion, anger, took over. She stood up, getting in his face, "what's your fucking deal, Aiden? You suddenly can't leave me alone after three years?"

He looks away from her, not backing up like anyone else would, "don't call me that."

"You need to leave," Becca pushed her way between the two of them before it could go any farther, "I'm not asking, this time. I'm telling."

Aiden holds up his hands and steps backward, "alright, alright, I'm leaving. But we have to talk, Lola." When he turns his back, Lola holds up the middle finger on her broken hand over Becca's shoulder "I know you're flipping me off."

"Fuck you," she snaps out loud to him, making a few campers look over curiously. Once they saw Lola, it became clear that it was just her temper and they looked away. She shoves her shaking hands into her jacket pockets, clenching and unclenching the throbbing hand wrapped in bandages.

Becca sighs in front of her, "you sure know how to pick boyfriends."

"He's not--wasn't a boyfriend," she snaps, not meaning to sound as harsh as she did. When Becca turned to face her, she didn't seem mad at the raise in her voice.

She shrugs her broad shoulders, "just an assumption. He knows how to piss you off real quick."

That's because his presence alone could do it. She kept that to herself, suddenly not in the mood to flirt her way into a fling, "thanks," she says, "for getting him off my back."

Then Lola turns, ready to make her way down to the beach. It was her one true safe place in the world, with her feet in the sand and the waves trying to pull her in. That would make her heart rate drop. But she hears footsteps following her, going at half the pace she is.

"I don't think I've seen you at a fire since you got here," Becca mentions.

Lola scoffs, "I don't like crowds," she says shortly, "my broth....Percy dragged me here."

Still following, Becca seemed to be leaning into the conversation, "no siblings before this? It's weird saying it out loud. I've been here for three years and I still can't say "my brother or sister" out loud yet."

Lola slows her steps, now a few feet away from the crowd of other demigods around the fire, "look," she says, "thanks for making him leave, but I don't feel like holding a conversation tonight."

When she turned to keep walking, the footsteps follow her like clockwork, "good," Becca says with a deep intake of breath, "neither do I. Small talk irritates me. Where are we going?"

With a look over her shoulder, Becca was easily keeping up with her pace to get away from the fire and the people around it. She didn't have to know her very well to know that she was stubborn. It would do no good to tell her to stop. So, she waits for her to get bored along the walk to the beach. But the smell of freshwater grew closer until the dirt under them turned to sand, and she was still on her heels.

"Why are you following me?" Lola asks as they reach the edge of the beach.

The moon was their only source of light now, the campfire way behind them. Far enough to drown out the sound of singing. The Atlantic was softly swaying in front of them, and the sight alone lowered Lola's blood pressure. A different body of water but the same effect as the one in Los Angeles.

"Well you look like you could use someone to talk to," Becca admits, watching Lola kick her sneakers off and stuff her socks inside, "someone not under the same roof as you."

Lola hums, taking the few steps forward to steps into the wet sand, "so, pity."

"I'm being friendly," Becca insists, staying a few feet behind so her shoes stayed dry, "you haven't exactly made any friends since you got here. I'm trying to help."

The daughter of Poseidon drops to her butt on the sand, digging her toes into the sand and letting the waves wash them in deeper. She didn't care that the water got the ends of her jeans wet. She looks away from the water when she feels the space beside her being filled by a person.

Lola scoffs, "if you haven't noticed, I don't exactly scream "friendly" at anyone."

"Well you did punch the first person to make eye contact with you," Becca leans back onto the sand on her back, using her arms as a pillow to look up at the sky, "this is a camp, not a prison."

Scoffing at the comparison, the waves splash a little harder to cover her feet in the water, "yeah, well, he deserves it."

Becca grunts, pulling her feet up slightly to stop her jeans from getting wet, "what did he do, anyway? You won't even look at him."

Water crashes a little harder into the ground, cold water splattering onto Becca's legs and Lola's jacket. It slides off of her sleeves but sticks to the denim pants. Becca hisses, "touchy subject, okay, I get it."

The water aspect of her powers hadn't been easy to grasp, so far. Lola found it easier to cause an earthquake than to make a ball of water in her hand. That was Percy's area, but he was trying to help her get better at controlling it. Still, things like a strong wave or harsh landing were beyond her understanding of stopping.

She snorts and lays her palms against the puddle of remaining water to her side, "you may be pretty, but that doesn't mean I'm telling you my sob story."

"Aw, you think I'm pretty?" The sarcasm in her sharp voice could've cut the air. It was sharp and funny. Lola couldn't stop the sudden laugh that left her mouth, "I'm flattered a child of Poseidon doesn't hate me. Jackson can't stand any child of Ares."

Lola waves her remark off, "he hates kids of Aphrodite more. That's why he makes us go against them every Friday."

Becca lifts her head from the sand. Lola can hear the sound of moving sand a mile away, "that's why you guys are working with us? I thought it was our friendly demeanor."

"A rattlesnake has a better bedside manner than you guys."

It was Becca's turn laugh, the sound bouncing off the waves and ringing along the beach, her head falling back, "I wish I could argue."

Her laugh and light-sounding voice worked as well as the beach did to calm Lola's anger down. For a moment, she forgot that she had come to the beach because she was angry. It was a blissful moment, laughing on the beach with a pretty girl.

But all good things come to an end. Hers wouldn't last another 12 hour


	10. Missing Brother Part 2

The night went by fast. So fast, that by the time either girl realized how long they had been sitting in the sand, the bonfire had been extinguished and the Ares cabin was out scouring for their sister. Lola stayed there for a while longer by herself, but she didn't feel so alone this time.

Percy had been in his bed when she got back, his snores rattling the cabin. He vaguely muttered to her when the back cabin door closed behind her, "shut up, harpy," before dozing off again.

He wasn't there when she woke up, however. He wasn't in the shower, he wasn't brushing his teeth, she barely made it to the pavilion for breakfast because he hadn't forced her awake.

She ran into the dining hall, out of breath, her hair still wet from the shower, and her bat swinging from her belt loop. She slowed down when she saw the empty cabin three table. He always left a mess in his path when he ate. But there wasn't a crumb in sight on the table.

As usual, she sat down without a plate. She never ate what her brother forced her to get, anyway. It just went to waste. At least that was avoided with his sudden absence.

Still, Lola scanned the dining hall once more to see if he was up getting his plate.

"Hey, Lola," Annabeth speaks from behind her, "where's Percy?"

Lola looks over her shoulder at the blonde girl, "I have no idea," she admits.

She lifts her bat off of her belt loop, setting it down on top of the table to lift the weight off her leg. Apparently, this fact confused Annabeth too.

"He's not in the cabin?" She asks as if Lola hadn't looked when she woke up.

With an annoyed eye roll, Lola responds, "no I didn't look past him. I figured he was here or with you."

Annabeth shakes her head, a sliver of worry etching itself onto her face. That made Lola uneasy. Was it that odd for him to just disappear for a while? She didn't find it out of character for how long she'd know him. He was probably in an argument with a Pegasus or something, right?

Her sister-in-law notices the lack of food in front of her, "well just because he's running late doesn't mean you don't have to eat."

Annabeth grabbed her by the jacket sleeve and pulled her up from the table and towards the buffet of breakfast food. Lola outwardly groaned.

"I'm not hungry!" She complains. Which was true. Dinner last night had filled her up until probably lunch, and she just wasn't hungry, "come on, Anna. I'll take a granola bar or something for later."

Annabeth shoved a plate into her hands, "Percy would kill me if he knows you didn't at least try and eat."

She ended up with a pile of waffles and syrup with strawberries on top, and a goblet of orange juice. Then Annabeth sat her down at the Poseidon table before going to the Athena table. Percy's side was still empty, and it felt weird. He hadn't missed breakfast the entire time she's been there. Why would he start now?

She knew breakfast was over when the other tables started filing out like clockwork. Still no brother. She was officially worried. And from the looks of Annabeth across the hall, she was right to be.

"Where's your bodyguard?" That voice was unmistakably Becca.

She had spent all night listening to it, so of course she knew it. And when she turned around to stand up, she confirmed it.

The usual red hoodie and orange shirt with jeans. Her sword was on her hip and a shield on her back. Her black hair up in a ponytail. She looked effortlessly good.

"I have no idea," Lola says for the second time that day, "probably in the stables....I hope."

Grabbing her bat off the table, she follows the crowd out, not expecting the conversation to go past that. But as she walked, she could feel the presence of Becca walking behind her. Like the night before.

"I'm not going anywhere interesting," Lola jokes as Becca reaches the space beside her.

The tall and lean girl shrugs, "and I'm looking to skip the obstacle course today, so whatever you're doing is way more interesting."

"More interesting than falling lava?" Lola scoffs and they make a turn to reach the stable path, "I highly doubt it."

Becca hums in response, "once you've been burned by it a dozen times, it gets more annoying than interesting."

"I guess it would," they reach the doors to the Pegasus stables. Inside, Becca could hear what she use to think were people talking loudly.

But when they pushed open the doors, she knew already that she was just hearing the Pegasus' conversations. But only their conversations, no actual people voices.

"Percy!" She calls out as they walk farther in, "come on, Annabeth's worried that you weren't at breakfast!"

No reply,

Sighing, Lola opts to lean into the nearest stable room where a white Pegasus was munching on hay.

"Hey, Gretel," she greets, "have you seen Percy at all this morning?"

"Are you talking to a Pegasus?" Becca asks from behind her, "is that a thing you can do?"

Confused, Lola looks back at her, "what? Yeah. Poseidon, creator of horses, Pegasus are partially horse."

"Hey!" Gretel whines, "I'm not a horse!"

Lola rolls her eyes, "I said partially," she clears, "now, have you seen Percy? We can't find him."

Gretel huffs, "he hasn't been here," she says, "you're the only child of Poseidon I can sense nearby."

That furthered the pit in her stomach, "at all? How far can you sense them?"

Gretel shakes out her mane and sniffs around the hay while she answers, "up the fields from here. I don't think he's in camp, my lady."

"Shit," she mutters to herself, "thanks, Gretel. I'll grab some sugar cubes for you at lunch."

There's a thankful whine as she backs away from the stable. Becca was still there, confused as she looked from the Pegasus to the other demigod. The worried look on Lola's face wasn't easily hidden.

"What did they say?" Becca asks, "that look doesn't mean good news."

She was confused on where to go from here. So she stood in the center of the stables and tried to think quickly. Did she go straight to Chiron? He hadn't told her or Annabeth he was leaving, so this wasn't planned.

"Um..." she looks at the other end of the stables like he would magically appear if she looked away. All she could see was the lake beyond them, "Percy's not in the camp," she tells Becca out loud, "and I don't...I don't really...know what to do about this."

Was her brother missing? Again?

Her heart suddenly started hammering, her palms sweating. She was scared, but that fear was being swallowed so she could think.

Becca noticed her nerves and raised an eyebrow, "not in camp?" She asks, "how does the horse know that?"

There's an irritated whine from every stable room where a Pegasus is. It made Lola smile, just a little bit. But then it faded with her worries.

"They can sense children of Poseidon," she explains briefly while shoving her hands in her jacket pockets. Her hands wrap around the carton of cigarettes but she doesn't pull it out yet, "but I'm the only one in camp."

"Oh," Becca suddenly realizes the gravity that knowledge brings with it.

Lola's thoughts are racing. Did she go to Annabeth? Or would she be angry at her for not going straight to Chiron? What if Percy wasn't even missing and she was freaking out over nothing? She was probably only freaking out because she knew what it would feel like to have him be officially missing. It would hurt. A lot. Probably worse the second time.

What if he just left her? Like she feared. What if he saw too much of how damaged she was and was disappointed in her?

"Hey," as if remembering Becca was there, Lola jumps when she talks, "we'll figure this out."

She sounded very...assuring. Uncharacteristic for the way Annabeth had made her seem. When Lola looked up at her, she's looking at her worriedly, as if she would explode at any moment.

"Let's go to Chiron," Becca says and nods her head in the direction of the big house, "and we'll figure it out from there."

Lola nods her head, "okay," she hates how small her voice sounds.

This time it's her following Becca, her heart still hammering. What were the odds that her actual brother would go missing after she found the supposed first one? Was it just her luck? Was she cursed? Was anyone she cared about doomed to leave? Annabeth was going to be so pissed. Whether at her or at Percy, Lola had no idea. But she would be scarily angry.

As if she wasn't scary enough without anger boiling over.

Becca leads them towards the farm house, where two people were sitting on the porch already. At least what looked like two people.

Mr. D, the god of wine, was sitting in one porch chair in his Hawaiian shirt and cargo shorts. His hat had the usual grapes vines curling around it, and Lola figured they weren't fake.

Chiron was in his wheelchair, a blanket over his legs as if he had to hide the truth here. But he was still wearing a fancy coat with elbow patches and his hair was combed out like he had a class to teach.

"Chiron! Mr. D!" Becca calls out before they fully reach the house, "we've got some news!"

Once they're close enough, Becca motions for Lola to disclose the new information. After a deep breath, she's able to.

"Percy's not in camp," she explains, "we can't find him." This raises an eyebrow from both Chiron and Mr. D, "so...please tell me he's on some secret quest he didn't tell anyone about."

The look they give each other says otherwise.

"How do you know this?" Asks Chiron calmly.

"The Pegasus can't sense him," she says before scoffing, "wow that sounds fucking insane."

As if saying that out loud was the last straw, she yanks her pack of cigarettes from her pocket. There's a few left, and now she needs one more than ever.

"I'll call the counselors," Mr. D says in an annoyed voice as he stands from the table, "it's always cabin 3."

Lola stops herself from snapping at him by lighting the stick between her lips. He stomps off the porch and towards camp.

"Lola, Becca," Chiron calls to them, "come inside. We'll need all the details."

Sitting on the porch step, Lola sighs, "give me a minute," she holds up the cigarette.

"Just be inside by the time all the cabin counselors are here," he sighs and his chair can be heard whirring its way inside. Mr. D had disappeared into the camp, hunting down the oldest campers here. Technically, if Percy is missing, that makes her the Poseidon cabin counselor. It was no different than her being in charge of herself for 16 years prior to this camp. She hated someone else having control over her, even if he was her half-brother, but this was a shitty way to get back to normal.

Becca walks up the stairs and past her, towards the house. But she doesn't hear the door open or close. Lola glances back over her shoulder to see that she was still standing there. Maybe, under some other circumstances, it would be sweet. Possibly even romantic. But, right now, she felt like she could hardly focus. So she ignores her and tries to think of something that makes sense. Something constant.

Not a damn thing came to mind. Not friends, or family, because those had all changed a million times during her life. There was no constant in her life.

"Lola, what's going on?" Annabeth can be heard running towards the big house on the grass, "where's Percy?"

Lola looks up, the cigarette half gone, and gives a heavy shrug of her shoulders. Annabeth's grey eyes turned angry.

"What do you mean you don't know?" She snaps, "you guys sleep 10 feet apart! How do you not know?!"

"I mean I don't know!" Lola shouts right back, "you're his hip attachment, if anything you should know!"

Annabeth was still rapidly approaching the porch, a line of other campers behind her all looking confused, "you're his sister, Lola!"

She tensed, as if bracing for impact, but refused to break eye contact as she got closer. Besides, it didn't matter how hard she hit, Lola had felt worse. Before Annabeth got even closer, the footsteps that never disappeared behind her were suddenly very loud.

"Back off, blondie," Becca snaps, right behind Lola all of a sudden.

Annabeth halts, a counselor almost running into her back.

"If you don't know where he is, then you can't be mad that she doesn't know either," Becca's voice is an octave lower than normal, and intimidating. Lola just didn't know why she was wasting it on defending her.

Annabeth clamps her mouth shut, the counselors behind her now walking around her and past Lola to make it inside the Big House. Annabeth storms past them and follows the crowd, leaving Lola and Becca back on the porch. Lola relaxes and huffs out smoke.

"You don't have to hang around, you know," she tells her sudden protector behind her. She was still standing just behind her back.

"I'm still avoiding the obstacle course for another 20 minutes," Becca sounds almost bored, "plus I want the gossip before the others."

Lola scoffs, almost a laugh, before smothering out the end of her cigarette, "I'm learning us Poseidon kids are always the center of gossip," she jokes, "must be why you're so interested in me."

She stands and turns to the front door, Becca following her inside to the ping-pong table, "you found out."


	11. The Talk

Now, Lola's had two brothers go missing over the span of 16 years. One came back a traitor, the other was still missing. At least it wasn't just her looking, this time.

48 hours is how long Percy had been missing. And it was oddly quiet, now. Especially in the cabin. Lola could hardly stand to be inside of it. Last night she had "accidentally" fallen asleep on the beach and showered at the cabin the next morning. She missed his annoying snores and wake-up calls.

Annabeth had taken the reigns in the search from camp, ordering a few demigods into the city to search for clues. Grover had been out searching as well, and it had become the talk among nymphs and campers alike. And, since the small argument outside the Big House, Lola and Annabeth were hardly on talking terms.

So, there were very limited people she could still talk to. Becca was an occasional conversation in the armory and during the campfire, but that was it. So, Lola stood in the stables again, leaning against the support pillar and talking to the sibling pegasus that she had grown to like.

"So you've been to the Amazon Rainforest?" Lola questions the pair.

Hansel neighs and chomps on some hay, "we've flown over it a few times," he says, "it's not really pegasus friendly."

"It's pretty from up high," Gretel tells her, "really green. Not much green left, anymore."

"Yeah," Lola sighs and leans her head against the wooden beam, "well I've never left LA before this, so I wouldn't really know."

The female pegasus ruffles her wings, "we could take you some day," she offers, "it'd be an honor to fly the daughter of poseidon!"

"Suck up," Hansel grumbles and chomps some more hay.

Lola snickers, "I'll think about it after this whole mess is over," the mess being her brother's disappearance from the cabin. 

Hansel stops his loud chewing, "any news yet?" he asks.

Her burst of joy from talking to a pegasus was suddenly over. She shakes her head, her dark hair tickling her back, "nothing," she tells them, "he didn't even take his shoes, so he wasn't planning on leaving."

There's silence as she thinks it all over again. Trying to see if he had said anything to hint that he was leaving. And if he did, maybe there was also a hint to where he was. But no matter how hard she thought about it, or how long, she couldn't bring up a single clue. 

"I never thought I'd miss his annoying ass," she mutters.

"Siblings are indeed annoying, " Gretel agrees, "but they're our kind of annoying, right?"

Lola huffs and shrugs her shoulders, "I guess," she says.

"You're talking to a horse," someone spoke behind her.

It was becoming so common for people to sneak up on her that she wasn't surprised at all. Not even by who it was.

"You've really lost it," Aiden chuckles like he made a funny joke.

"Hey!"

"We're not horses!" Hansel and Gretel were not happy about the comparison from the son of Hades.

Lola shushes them, "it's been a long week," she admits to him out loud in the least hostile tone she had used since arriving, "and they don't like being called horses."

There's neighs of agreement throughout the stables around them and Aiden can be heard snorting at her defense. Lola watches Hansel finish his last clump of hay before he and his sister begin arguing over who ate more. Even then, she hears Aiden walking closer behind her.

"I know it's not a good time," he says, almost right behind her, "with everything going on. But this is the first time you've been alone since you've got here."

"You would know," she rolls her eyes, still not courageous enough to turn and look at him, "you've been following me the whole time."

"I've been trying to find a time to talk," he doesn't bother denying it, "can you at least look at me? Just once?"

Lola lifts her hand to her mouth, gnawing on her thumb nail like her life depended on it, "you were right," she pushes, "it's not a good time. You should go."

"No," he pushes her right back, this time the sound of his heavy shoes right behind her, "I'm not leaving you alone, Lola."

She leaves a moment of silence between them, letting his words sink in. He won't leave her alone. Even when he already did. For so long. And she was alone again. Even at camp half-blood, where she was supposed to belong. Her stomach was twisting into knots and she was suddenly glad she skipped breakfast that morning. The next time she speaks, her voice is cracked and raw.

"Percy is missing," she says it out loud for the first time, "my brother is missing. The brother I had for a week, who I actually kind of got attached to. But that's on me, right?" She laughs, her hands shaking as she stares at the stable ground, "I knew not to depend on anyone and I manage to fuck up that rule in 8 days. And now...my brother is missing."

She finally turns around to face him. Her eyes were ringed red. She knew that because they were stinging with tears. Normally, she hated anyone to see her cry. Hell, she hated seeing herself cry. But Aiden, even though he's a traitorous bastard, had seen her in just about every emotion humanly possible. Even while she doesn't trust him, there was nothing he hadn't seen before.

"And you know what the cherry on top of that fact is?" She gives a mocking smirk, "this isn't the first time I've had to say that."

"I'm sorry," he says before she can turn away again, "Lola, I am so sorry."

"You're so sorry?" she laughs, trying to stop a tear from falling, "yeah, being so sorry really put it all into perspective for me."

"I wanted to come back so many times, practically every day," he ignores her snide remarks because he was use to her pushing away any confrontation, "but it would've been too dangerous--"

"Dangerous?!" She shouts in shock, her rage boiling just below the surface, "you left me alone! In that house, with those people! ALONE!"

He closes his eyes, apparently trying to keep his own emotions at bay, "I would've brought every monster in the city to your door and I had to protect you," she wanted to pull her hair out at the statement, "you know I would do anything to protect you."

"Protect me?" She seethes, the silence of the stables very loud around them as every living thing in the vicinity was afraid to speak and set off her tidal wave of anger, "I would rather take every monster in the goddamn country than sit one more day by myself in that house. You knew that...you know that, better than anyone alive."

"If I had known you were a demigod too, I would've been right back in LA to get you," he was practically ignoring her reasonings for being angry with him.

At this point both parties were talking at each other rather than to each other. No one was listening, just trying to defend themselves.

"We could've run together!"

"I was keeping you safe from this life!"

"I trusted you!"

"Everything I did was for you!"

Finally fed up, and angry, and more hurt than when this conversation started, Lola finally turns around and tries to walk away. Before the ground started shaking and she took down the camp with her emotions. The last thing she wanted was to destroy something she had grown used to.

Behind her, Aiden scoffs and shouts, "Run away from another problem, Lola! That's one thing that hasn't changed!"

With one more turn on her heel, she has to get the last word in. Because she was the one who was hurt, not him. He didn't deserve to have any words in this argument.

"I put up posters, asshole!" she shoves the fact in his face, "I looked for you for years! I thought you were dead!" he had finally shut up and was letting her talk, "but you chose to leave me, Aiden. You were my brother, and you chose to abandon me."

"I didn't choose to," he approaches her.

They were now standing at the end of the stables, the end facing the lake. Lola could smell the fresh water from where they were. The mud it left behind, the nymphs that stayed under the surface. She knew it would be cold today, even though the air was warm. But she liked the chill on her feet when she walked the edges during free time. It was the only alone time she got when Percy was around. He spent his free hour with Annabeth and she spent hers knee deep in a freshwater lake. Sometimes, fish would brave the shallows to greet her.

The Lake was so much more tempting than this situation. So she pictured it around her to keep her dangerous emotions down. She felt the cold water on her shins, the fish tickling her feet, the warm sunlight poking through the trees above her. If she walked far enough, she would reach the sandy beach. It had become her safe haven.

Once she left like the imaginary cold water had simmered down her boiling point, she decided to take the bait.

"What do you mean?" She asks in a calm. It was drastically different from the screaming match they had been in seconds ago a few steps away.

Aiden jumps at the chance to explain himself, "I didn't choose to leave," he repeats, "it was after detention that day....do you remember why I got detention?"

That day was burned into her brain. It was the day her life changed. She had gone over it again and again, looking for clues to why he would run away. The police asked her questions about it, she asked herself questions. But it always came up empty.

"Get to the point, Aiden," she pushes, not wanting to go over the details of that day.

"I was attacked," he spits out, "by a harpy. One of the winged things that look like they came from a kids nightmare. Luckily, Smig was in town. He's a satyr, a protector for demigods. He got me away, and he brought me to safety."

"Safety a whole country away?" Lola asks for confirmation. Did they have some kind of teleportation powers she didn't know about?

"No," he shakes out his black hair and one of his hands starts pulling at the bracelet wrapped around his wrist like a habit, "he explained everything to me before he took me here. About gods and demigods and what I really am. He said it was dangerous for me to be around people because of how strong my scent is."

Aiden was staring her down like she would go sprinting any moment. And she debated on it, but thought better. She had to face this problem right now before she lost her cool. She thought about the wind coasting over the top of the water as she continued to listen to him.

"So I left to keep you safe," he repeats, "but if I had known that Smig was really looking for you, I would've been there faster than they could send another protector."

"You could've left a note," she shakily tells him, crossing her arms over her chest like she could physically hold herself together, "you could've told someone you were leaving. Your mom, Roger, me."

"You would've come looking for rme."

"Damn right I would've," the lake water in her mind started to get warm, "because we were best friends, Aiden. Of course I would've come looking for you."

"We're still best friends," he states as if that couldn't be changed by a force in the world, "I know everything about you. You know everything about me."

"You don't know anything about me, anymore," the water was starting to boil around her legs, the fish were swimming away, "just like I don't know you. We're different people."

"Do you still hate unflavored chapstick?" he asks her the question as if that would answer her questions, "do you still like skateboards over bikes? Do you still not have a favorite color? Do you remember that girl at Biggerson's you had a crush on for two weeks?"

"I don't use chapstick," Lola rolls her eyes, "I prefer motorcycles now, and blue's a pretty cool color. And, I dated that girl for a year after you left. Her name's Katie. See, Aiden? You don't know anything about me."

There was no chance for either of them to continue this conversation because quick footsteps were coming for the stable floors, "Lola."

It was Will coming towards them. Quickly, Lola wipes her eyes and tries to hide the fact that she was crying with her hair. His flip flops were the loudest thing she had ever heard. It washed away her calm place in her head, taking the water and trees with it.

"Yeah, Will?" she says without looking up at him.

"We have something on Percy, come on."


	12. Starfish

"You had a vision from Hera?" Lola questions as she sits at the ping-pong table for the millionth time in two days.

The counselors were around the table; WIll from Apollo, Drew from Aphrodite, Annabeth from Athena, even Aiden from Hades had followed her. Lola wasn't sure if she was there because she was technically counselor of Poseidon now, or because she was related to the missing party.

"And it's about a guy with one shoe?" She keeps her question rolling to process it. That wasn't the craziest thing she'd ever heard.

"Yeah," says Annabeth, "she said we'd find him in the Grand Canyon," her confidence was unshakeable, like she had been given all the answers.

Lola rests her arms on the table, "but did she say we would find Percy?" she pushes the facts, "did she specifically say we would find Percy in the Grand Canyon with one shoe?"

All eyes drift from her to Annabeth, waiting for her answer. Lola hated that. These people had their own opinions on the new information, they didn't have to just listen to hers.

"Well..." Annabeth says hesitantly, "she didn't say his name. Just that we would find answers there."

"So it's a hunch," Lola sighs, the hope deflating from her body like a balloon.

"It's also the only information we have," Chiron steps up from the other end of the table with Mr. D, "so this hunch is our best chance at finding him."

She scrunches her nose and glares at him, "I wasn't saying don't listen to it," she snaps. The entire table tenses at her tone towards their leader, "I'm just saying no one should get their hopes up. From what I've heard, the Gods love to fuck with us."

Whispers go around the table in agreement. It was, apparently, common knowledge. Annabeth purses her lips from across the table.

"Why aren't you jumping at the chance to find him?" She challenges, "he's your brother, why aren't you worried?" she sounded angry and places her hands on the table so she could steadily glare at Lola.

Said girl rolls her eyes and leans back into the lawn chair she had taken up. She lowers one hand down, finding a grip on the handle of her spike bat. She brings it into her lap to spin it around like a fidget toy.

"It wouldn't be this easy if it was real," she shrugs nonchalantly, "I think he's fine, wherever he is. Someone went through too much trouble to take him for him to die."

"We're going to the Grand Canyon," says Annabeth, ignoring Lola's statements, "we're leaving in an hour so be ready, Lola."

She was marching away, probably off to sharpen a sword, before anyone could protest her bringing such a new camper along with her. The front door slammed behind her and Lola huffs, laying her bat on the table as everyone starts muttering around her.

"Jackson is probably wandering around New York in his pajamas from sleepwalking," Clarisse says with a laugh, her feet up on the table without a care in the world.

While that solution would be the easiest, but Lola was getting the feeling that nothing was easy here. No matter how much she hoped her brother would just walk through the Big House doors, that wasn't going to happen. Their best bet was to go all the way to Arizona and track down a guy with one shoe. It was like looking for a needle in a 6,000-foot deep haystack.

"But she's right," Will says from his chair across the ping-pong table. He looks at Lola with confusion, "you don't seem worried at all."

Not one to back down from an argument just because of a crowd, she looks at him with narrowed eyes, "when did I say that, blondie?"

Will rolls his eyes and waves her off, "just try not to die while you're gone."

Clarisse scoffs, chewing on a stick of jerky that had appeared from nowhere. The rickety chair she was on was a few sways away from collapsing, "yeah," she agrees, "I don't think my sister would be too happy about that since you guys are besties now."

"Besties" isn't the word she would use to describe her and Becca. The only time they had real conversations was during the campfire, which Lola had been attending in an attempt to stay away from the cabin. They trained during Sword and Shield, but there was no real conversation between them other than Lola cursing when she was knocked onto her back.

"Whatever," she can't think of anything to retort back, her mind too muddled with other problems. She stands from her lawn chair, "no one touches my bike while I'm gone."

She sends a pointed look towards Jake, the counselor of the Hephaestus cabin. The entirety of cabin 9 had been trying to get the stolen motorcycle off the side of the Poseidon cabin all week. Something about how it was a "1970 Bonneville 750." She'd heard it so many times that she had the name memorized. But whatever that meant, every child of Hephaestus was itching to get their hands on it. Jake gives a reluctant nod before she walks away.

Somehow, she wasn't shocked to hear a chair scrape the ground and footsteps follow after her. She also wasn't shocked that it was Aiden.

Their "talk" had gotten a lot off her chest, but she was by no means ready to forgive him. It didn't matter if he left to save her, she thought he was dead and he never thought to prove her wrong. But, she didn't scream at him to leave her alone this time.

"That bike," he comments as they reach the door of the Big House, "I'm guessing you don't actually own that."

"I do now," she answers smugly, "I'd like to see them track it here."

It was literally impossible. There was magic surrounding the camp, scrambling any electronic signal inside. So, if there was a tracker on the bike, it was probably telling everyone that it was in Thailand now. It's Lola's, now, and it would make getting around much easier than her old skateboard.

Not that Chiron had allowed her to use it on campgrounds. The keys had been collecting dust on the bedside stand the whole time she had been there.

Realizing she didn't really know where to go, or what to do, Lola's walk gets slower and slower until she stands still. This was technically a training quest, right? Not her own quest, but Annabeth wanted to take her alone to follow a Goddess's message. And she had been told to "be ready" to go to.

"Uh..." she turns to Aiden, the only person she could even ask this question to, "what do I do?"

The way he smiled at her was nostalgic. She wouldn't say it out loud, but she had missed the way he smiled at her when she asked a dumb question. She didn't think it was too far-fetched to think he felt the same, even a little bit. Of course, she was always prepared to be wrong.

"About what?" He asks for clarification.

"This is like a pregame to a real quest." her comparison made him snort, "how do I get ready for something like that? Do I need gas money?"

Lola didn't even know if Aiden had been on any quests, but she figured he was the only person she knew enough to ask without getting laughed at, no matter how angry she still was at him.

"I don't think you'll be gone for long," he says with a thoughtful shrug, "so just your weapon, and a shield if you can use one."

Lola purses her lips, thinking back to the lessons Becca had been giving her. She'd been pushing her to learn to fight with a shield in one hand, but it hadn't been going well. Lola was too small, and all the shields at the camp were too big. They made her topple over during fights and sway when she ran.

She shakes her head, "no, shields aren't my thing."

Aiden nods as if that didn't surprise him, "then just hope you don't puke while you wait. Annabeth will probably take care of everything else since she's got a thing for details."

Even though she didn't know Annabeth very well, she had gotten that much already. She liked knowing how everything would play out. A borderline control freak, Lola wondered how she and Percy worked so well together. Percy hated plans, half the time they never stuck to their cabin schedule, and he lived in an unorganized chest at the foot of his bed. But whatever the reason, Annabeth was still willing to go halfway across the country for him.

"I hadn't noticed," Lola rolls her eyes, and she reaches down to make sure her weapon was still in her possession. The spikes of the bat tap against her palm.

Annabeth was off making a plan, and Lola had nothing to do in the meantime. And she didn't want to spend the rest of her free time hanging around with Aiden, at least not yet. Maybe there was hope that they could repair their shattered friendship in the future, but she didn't have it in her to start now. She could crash the volleyball court and play with the Aphrodite kids, or the archery range and piss off Will until she had to leave.

She didn't have time to choose because she notices someone walking up the path from camp the Big House. Aiden noticed it too and sighs, putting his hands in his jean pockets.

"It's my replacement," he says and is already walking back towards the house when Lola processes who it is. Becca is approaching them, her red hoodie on over her orange shirt, and she was already glaring at Aiden, "I'll leave before someone gets into it." He hesitates in turning around and gives her a hopeful look, "I'm glad we're at least talking again."

Lola turns to raise an eyebrow at him but doesn't say anything or stop him when he walks back towards the house. She didn't hate that they had finally talked in the stables. Even if it was more of them both blowing up at each other, it was things she had to get off her chest before she could breathe around him. She watches him retreat, noticing that he was a little taller than when he left.

His jeans were above his ankles, but he hated clothes shopping. His mom used to drag him from store to store every school year and he would drag Lola with him for moral support. That once ended in them getting banned from the local Aeropostale. His mom had been pissed for about 20 minutes. Apparently, he had no one to force him into getting properly fitting clothes.

Footsteps come up behind her, making her step out of the way since she was standing in the center of the path. She had momentarily forgotten that Becca was approaching. Lola watches as her black converse come to a stop in front of her, kicking up dust from the path.

"Clarisse is inside, still," Lola tells her without looking up at her face, "the meeting isn't over."

"I'm looking for you, actually," Becca says. This prompts her to look up in confusion.

They hardly talked outside of activities, why would she hunt her down suddenly? Lola hums, "really? What for?"

Now that she was closer, Lola could see that there was a burned patch on her camp shirt that still had some smoke rising from it. She must've just finished up at the obstacle course. Her hair was pulled up into a ponytail, her bangs frizzy and messy. The expression under them was as unreadable as ever. She didn't look angry, so Lola assumed she hadn't broken anything important today, but she also didn't look like she came bearing any good news.

Becca bites her bottom lip as if she was debating on engaging in a conversation. After a few moments of silence, Lola starts to feel uneasy under her intense stare.

"Okay..." Lola says with a click of her tongue, "I have things to do before we leave so I'll catch you later." She moves to walk around her, eager to escape the death glare. If it could be called a glare.

"So you are going with Annabeth?" Becca says suddenly, her voice urgent, "to the grand canyon?"

Word travels fast, thinks Lola. That decision had been made a few minutes ago, who had Annabeth blabbed to already? And why did Becca trek all the way up here in the middle of her cabin activities to confirm it? She gives her a wary look.

"Uh yeah," she says, "we're leaving in an hour."

Becca drops her hands into her hoodie pockets like she didn't know what to do with them. There was still no change to her expression, not even a blink. But her eyes flit to the baseball bat that hung in Lola's belt loop.

"You think you'll be okay in a fight?" She asks, tearing her eyes from the weapon to meet Lola's.

Lola narrows her green eyes at her, trying to get a reading on what was happening. Her gaze was intense, but not uncomfortably so anymore. The light from the sun let Lola see a little deeper into her eyes than normal, but it didn't give her much to go on.

"I think so." She confirms, but she didn't really. She knew how to block a blade now, but that probably wouldn't work against another Empusa. Not to mention, she had minimum control over her powers. Strong emotions still made the ground shake wherever she stood. But, she didn't need to tell Becca her troubles and worries.

But Becca sensed her doubt and narrowed her almost eyes, "you're sure?"

Lola rolls her eyes, "did you really come all the way up here just to ask me if I can carry my weight?"

Becca scrunches her nose in protest, the first change in expression she'd shown since storming up the side of the hill. She raises a hand from her hoodie pocket and pushes her bangs out of her face, looking away from Lola instantly.

"What? No. Not just that..." she says but fails to bring up any other reason.

Her tawny cheeks are darkening, though, and she refuses to look back at Lola. She was blushing, and that helped Lola put the pieces together. She feels herself start to grin like the Cheshire cat.

"You're worried about me going on this mini-quest, aren't you?" She says, crossing her arms and leaning back on her heels. Her bat sways from her shift of weight.

Becca's cheeks get darker and she peeks at Lola from the corner of her eyes, which were trained on the volleyball field, "what the hell makes you think that?"

If Lola's grin could've gotten bigger, it would've. She snickers, raising her hand to cover her mouth to try and hide how funny she thought it was. Becca didn't know it, but Lola had been taking care of herself her entire life. She'd been in survival mode since she came out of the womb. She knew sleeping in the streets and eating dumpster food wasn't the same as fighting monsters with swords and magic, but she knew when to trust her gut. If her gut said run, she would run, when it said fight, she would fight.

"Well, you ditched your obstacle course to walk at least a quarter-mile here, and just to ask me if I'll be okay on a two-hour trip to the grand canyon." It was flattering when she thinks about it, and almost makes up for the fact that Becca had a thing for being a grade-A bitch to just about everyone in camp. Including her.

Becca rolls her eyes, giving Lola an annoyed look, "that's not why I came up here, Starfish."

Lola snickers at the use of the word, "Starfish?"

It was a new nickname. And it didn't sound like an insult, though it was probably meant to be given the context and her expression.

With a defeated sigh, Becca answers, "it's the only fish I could think of right now."

"There's millions of fish out there, and you land on Starfish?" Lola laughs, but she didn't hate the nickname. She'd been called lots of other things, some of them much worse. Without waiting for an answer, she adds on, "I'll be careful, hot-head. Don't worry that pretty head of yours."

"I'm not worried!" She insists, "I just don't need to be designing any shrouds to burn. It's too much work."

"If it helps you sleep at night, then sure. That's why." Lola gives her a playful wink and watches her face turn another two shades of red darker.

Becca huffs and yet she doesn't make a move to leave, "you always have to have a smart-ass remark, huh?"

"It's part of my charm."


	13. Even Goddesses Lie

A golden chariot was sitting in front of the Big House, attached to two pegasuses who were very excited. Their hooves kept stomping and their wings ruffled every few seconds. They were very chatty, and Lola could hardly focus on what Annabeth and Butch were talking about.

"There, hopefully, won't be any fighting," Butch is saying, "but we are picking up two other demigods who've been under protection while we're there."

"I can't believe we're flying our lady!" One of the pegasuses was gushing over Lola's shoulder, "and to find our lord!"

"I hope he's there; our lady has been distraught since his disappearance."

"Think we have enough room on the chariot?" Annabeth is asking as she examines it, "we can bring the bigger one if we have to."

Butch hums in consideration, "then we'll need another pegasus"

That, Lola heard loud and clear. There was already too much noise, "we can make this one work."

Butch and Annabeth look at her in confusion. She was spinning her bat around in her hand, trying to keep herself busy. She doesn't notice, but Annabeth gives Butch a sideways look. That's why he walks off to the side and started messing with the Pegasus reigns.

It was only the three of them, and they were minutes away from leaving. Butch had just been trying to calm the pegasuses down enough to wrangle the halters on them. Becca had disappeared back into camp with Clarisse when the meeting officially ended, and Aiden hadn't reappeared yet.

"You talked with Aiden," Annabeth says as if reading Lola's mind. Her voice manages to be louder than the Pegasuses, "I'm guessing it went okay?"

Confused for a second, Lola remembers that the last time Annabeth had seen them talk, the camp was almost destroyed in an Earthquake. He'd just followed her out of the meeting an hour ago and the camp was still standing.

"Oh," she says with a nod, "it wasn't really talking. More like shouting. But, sure."

Annabeth nods like an approving mother overseeing a squabble between her kids, "ya know, he hasn't seen his brother in a while, either," she informs her, leaning against the chariot, "Nico likes to run off on his own."

She didn't know there were any other kids of Hades. As far as her knowledge went, there had been some agreement between Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus that they wouldn't have demigod kids. Apparently, Zeus had broken it once, Poseidon twice, and Hades once. Well...twice, now.

She hums, "well running off on his own is different than disappearing from bed."

Annabeth nods in agreement, "yeah. But I know he misses him like you miss Percy."

Lola hadn't admitted that she missed him. Not even out loud to herself. And she hates that Annabeth could see it because she was trying to appear as apathetic as possible.

She narrows her eyes, "you just accused me of not caring an hour ago."

"I was upset...sorry about that," Annabeth sheepishly smiles.

Annabeth had more of a right to miss him than Lola did. She'd known him for far longer, and they spent nearly every moment together. Plus, the way they looked at each other was something to miss. Percy had mentioned that they hadn't been "together" for long, but the level of comfort they had around each other made Lola guess they had been pining for a lot longer.

Lola shrugs and shakes her head, "don't worry about it. I've had a lot worse said to me," she then motions to the chariot in an attempt to get away from the topic,, "also, is this a bad time to tell you I'm afraid of heights?"

The blonde threw her head back in laughter. Butch took that as a signal that any awkward conversation was over, and he approached them.

"Just don't look down," Annabeth says, still grinning as she stepped onto the flying mobile, "you'll be fine."

Butch climbs on beside her, leaving room behind them for a few other people. He's gripping the reigns of the pegasus, who flare their wings when Lola steps on between the two others.

Butch grunts, pulling the reigns, "they're energetic." he says and glances over at Lola, "I'm guessing that has to do with you?"

In front of them, the hooves of the two creatures clomp around on the dirt. She can hear them excitedly jabbering to each other, still. In LA, there hadn't been any horses around for her to have heard them talking. And they weren't exotic enough to be in zoos, so she'd never seen them before. Now, she could hear pegasus have a conversation.

Realizing he wouldn't get an answer, Butch snaps the reigns. Hooves kick off the ground, running forward only a few steps before white and black wings start flapping. The wheels of the chariot lift off the ground, and Lola felt the stability leave.

She grips the edges of the Chariot, "Ack!"

Annabeth laughs beside her. The flimsy metal holding them up gets higher and higher. She watched the sky get closer, and the ground in the distance get farther away. The chariot felt wobbly under her feet, and her knees wobbled with it. Annabeth laughs when she grips the edge harder.

"Just don't look down!" She had to shout over the wind rushing in her face.

The one thing you don't want to say to someone afraid of heights. It pretty much forced her to lean forward and peek over the edge. She did so, regretfully, as soon as she felt the chariot stop rising. The big house had become a blue dot under them, the strawberry fields were just lines of green. It was a long way down.

Lola pulls her head back, suddenly very nauseous and with white knuckles.

"I told you not to look!" Annabeth says over the wind that was rushing around them.

"Yeah, I know!" Lola decides that just closing her eyes was the only way to avoid passing out mid-air.

For a second, the light coming through her eyelids disappears. And during that second, she wondered if death was really that painless. Had they crashed into the sun? Did Zeus strike them out of the sky? She'd probably done a lot in her life to piss of multiple gods, some by just existing. She wondered who had seized the opportunity.

But then it reappeared, this time a little more intense than before. The chill in the air disappeared and was replaced by dry heat. Similar to the heat she knew in California. A heat that couldn't be in New York in the middle of spring

"Look!" She hears Annabeth shout from beside her, "on the walkway!"

So they weren't dead, not yet at least. Still, Lola could feel that there was no solid ground below them. They were still pretty high up in the air. She shakes her head, refusing to follow Annabeth's instructions. Hopefully Butch was listening.

"I see them!" He confirms, "must be the others we have to pick up!"

Lola wanted to open her eyes. Just enough to see if she could recognize one of them as Percy. But her eyes refused to open. She'd never thought that she'd be afraid of heights. The flight to New York had gone fine. But this lacked the secure walls and seat of a plane. One wrong step and she would be a pancake in someone's backyard.

The wheels of the chariot planted on something solid. It jolted the slightest, but enough to make her stomach roll. She can hear the hooves of the pegasus on the start clattering on something that sounded almost plastic. But that was better than the air. Only when they stopped moving entirely did she finally manage to peel her eyes open.

They definitely weren't in New York. Did she pass out during the trip? No, she would've fallen out.

She hadn't seen magic in use before, but if she had to guess, teleportation was on the list of things it could do.

They were standing on a catwalk that was going over the grand canyon. Sadly, a clear one that showed just how high up they still were. But at least this was stable and made for being walked on. She lets out a deep breath of relief that they survived.

Annabeth jumped from the chariot the second they touched down, and she was running across the catwalk. Lola was a little slower, her knees still wobbling from the flight. Her stomach was still gurgling, but now she could puke over the edge of the skywalk if it came to it.

Clutching the railing, she followed Annabeth with her eyes as she regained her balance.

She can see that Annabeth has her sword drawn, running at a group of kids around Lola's age. They all looked stunned and disheveled, clearly not understanding what they just witness come from the sky. She knew that look well, she still had it when something crazy happened to her.

Butch stays in the chariot, wrangling the pegasus to a full stop and calming them. Once she catches her breath and doesn't walk like she just got her legs, Lola follows down the skywalk.

Without looking down.

She keeps her eyes on the group she was approaching, instead. Besides Annabeth, there were three other kids standing on the skywalk. A girl with choppily cut brown hair scattered with thin braids and sharp features that made Lola think she was some form of Native American. A short elf of a boy with black hair curly hair and wide eyes that screamed mischief. The last person among them was a tall blonde boy built like a statue in a museum, with cropped blonde hair and eyes flooding with confusion and recognition at the same time.

The blonde boy is talking to Annabeth, but Lola doesn't catch what he says when she approaches.

"What about Gleeson Hedge?" Annabeth is asking, looking around to see if they'd missed someone, "where's your protector?"

The elf points up at the sky above them, "he got taken," he says the insane words carefully, "by some tornado things."

The blonde boy corrects his friend's term, "Venti," he says confidently, "storm spirits."

Confusion about his own words seems to come over him. He clasps his mouth shut and scrunches his brown. Annabeth also tenses, and Lola can almost see the narrowed eyes that she was giving him.

"You mean anemoi thuellai," Annabeth corrects the wording for the second time.

Those words made more sense to Lola than they probably should've. They went into her head a different language but were processed like English. Wind storms. But it pretty much was a storm spirit. They'd been mentioned in Monster Fighting Techniques once or twice, but Lola had no actual knowledge of them. She'd doubted they even existed, but apparently, they were hiding out in the grand canyon and waiting to steal people with stupid-sounding names.

"That's the Greek term," Annabeth tells him. Lola notices the grip on her sword tightening just barely, "who are you, and what happened?"

She had clearly caught them off guard. The Blonde model stumbled over his words for a few moments. The other two were looking from Annabeth to each other like they were debating on making a run for it.

Lola only half-listens to the story that was being told. About wind storms and flying. That wasn't the craziest thing she'd ever heard. Not anymore. She's more focused on taking in their surroundings and determining if Percy was really hiding out in the grand canyon. But she didn't see any messy black hair, and there was a distinct lack of sarcasm missing from the air.

Butch can be heard coming up behind them. His footsteps probably could've cracked the skywalk with enough force. Lola glances down as if it really would crack, and she notices something that was probably important.

She smacks Annabeth's arm. Just enough to get her attention, not to justify a punch back.

With her attention still mostly on the story, Annabeth swivels her head, "what is it, Lola?"

The attitude behind her name made her look up and raise an eyebrow. She didn't want to get into another argument with the girl, especially not in front of a bunch of strangers. Instead of telling her to calm down, she simply points down.

The blond boy had only one shoe. Like the message from Hera said he would.

His story falls short, realizing that no one was listening to him anymore. He and his friends look down to see what was so important.

"No!" Annabeth growls, "no, no, no!"

Just like Lola had figured, the message hadn't been about Percy. It was about someone who could lead them to Percy. Which was a whole other quest on its own, "she said he would be here!"

Lola sighs, wishing she wasn't as disappointed as she was, "no. She didn't."

She'd gathered that Percy wasn't here, and this trip was a waste of their time in finding him. Why would Hera do anything to help them? Still, whatever glimmer of hope this lead had given her was snuffed out on the canyon floor.

Annabeth turns towards her, as if shouting at her would solve their problems, "she told me if I came here that I would find the answer!"

She was very upset, and rightfully so, but Lola didn't like how she was yelling as if it was her fault. She hadn't even wanted to come on this stupid mission, she wanted to wait for a real lead at camp.

"But she didn't say we would find him." She reminds her. Annabeth's ears were tinting red in anger at being challenged. But Lola wasn't challenging her, she had no energy to fight right now. Not after that flight and the disappointment that greeted them. But Annabeth was clearly under the impression that she wanted to start an argument.

Lola must not have been very good at hiding the punch this failed mission threw. Or maybe Annabeth was just good at reading children of Poseidon. With a long look at her, she seems to let the anger deflate from her body like a popped balloon. An apologetic look replaces the bitter one.

Annabeth turns away first, breaking their staring contest, "she tricked us." She says in annoyance.

Lola sighs, shoving her hands in her jacket pockets. Behind them, she can hear the whispered chatters of the pegasus that were patiently waiting for them. Butch had gone for the silent approach too, but probably for different reasons than she did.

Annabeth went for the opposite approach. She turned her head to the sky and started shouting, "what do you want from me?!"

Everyone has wanted to scream and shout at whatever higher being they believe to be real. At least once. When something finally tops the pile of rocks on their shoulders. No matter how small of an inconvenience it is, it's just the cherry on top of the banana split. Lola didn't spare her a glare or a confused look because she knew the feeling all too well.

Behind them, the pegasus whiny and clomp their hooves. They'd gathered that Percy wasn't here from Annabeth's angry shouts to the wind. It was upsetting them almost as much as it did her.

"Annabeth," Butch interrupts her screaming match before Lola can tell him to give her a minute, "we have to get back to camp. Let's take these three and figure it out there."

Annabeth turns away from the sky, her cheeks still puffed in anger. She looks like she's about to argue with him. Her mouth half opens to do so, but she stops her words before they come out. She's looking at Lola, who in turn looks away from her.

"Yeah," Lola agrees with Butch, "those Storm Winds are probably still around."

There's a long silence from both ends. The already-campers, and the new campers. None of them dared to try and force Annabeth to do anything she didn't want to. Even Lola knew that being related to Percy could only get her so far.

"Fine," She finally huffs.

There was clearly nothing left for them to do. Percy wouldn't have sat out during a fight, his hero complex wouldn't let him. So there was no point in searching the entire canyon when he would've been in the middle of the action. There was also the fact that they had found what they came all the way across the country to look for. A guy with one shoe. Not the guy they were hoping to find, but they'd still found him.

Lola notices that Annabeth gives one last resentful look at the group they'd traveled for. Then she turns on her heel and marches towards the chariot.

"What's her problem?" The girl asks angrily when Annabeth was out of earshot, "we didn't do anything."

"And what's going on?" The elfish boy pipes up with his own questions. Lola knew personally that they had many.

Butch waves a meaty hand towards him, a motion for them to follow, "I can explain on the way," he says, "but we have to get our of here before those Wind Storms come back."

The girl was shaking her head immediately, "I'm not going anywhere with her," she sends a pointed look at Annabeth's back.

Lola huffs and steps up to defend her, even though she knew she probably shouldn't. Annabeth hadn't been right to be so angry with these strangers. They had no idea what was going on or that they were what her vision was about. For the most part, they didn't even know what was going on.

"Give her a break," she tells the girl, "she was supposed to find the answer to her problems here. But all we got is a few ungrateful kids."

The blonde boy gave her a confused look, "you're our age."

"I'm wise for my age," she sneers, ready to go back to camp and think of a new plan to find Percy.

Butch steps in to diffuse the tension that Lola had created, "we're looking for someone, that's all," he says, stepping towards them with a disapproving look at Lola, "a camper that's been missing for three days. Annabeth is worried, that's all."

"Who?" The girl asks, now more interested than angry.

"Her boyfriend," Butch jerks a thumb over his shoulder in Annabeth's direction, "his name is Percy Jackson."

There was no recognition on any of their faces when he said the name. Another confirmation that Hera had sent them on a wild goose chase.

"Excuse me," The elfish boy raises a thin hand that's covered in calluses and what looks like motor grease. He's looking at Lola curiously, "Is that blood on your jacket?"

She looks down as if to see for herself. Of course, she already knew that answer to it. It'd been washed a few different times now to try and get the stains out, but they were stubborn. She'd even turned down a new camp jacket from Chiron.

"Just mine," she says as if it was the most important piece of information to give that question.

"Oh, that makes it okay." The elf says to no one. The blonde guy, hopefully his friend, smacks his shoulder to tell him to shut up.

Not wanting to hear any more of this conversation, Lola turns on her heel to meet Annabeth and sibling pegasus at the chariot.


End file.
